ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  S 
CARDINAL  TRAITS 


C.  S.BEARDSLEE 


HUMAN  PERSONALITY  SERIES 


EX  LJIRBFUS 


ALEXANDER  GOLDSTEIN 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S 
CARDINAL  TRAITS 

A  STUDY  IN  ETHICS 

WITH  AN  EPILOGUE  ADDUSSSED  TO 
THEOLOGIANS 

BY 

C.  S.  BEARDSLEE 


BOSTON:  RICHARD  G.  BADGER 

THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

THE  COPP  CLARK  Co.,  LIMITED 

TORONTO 


Copyright  19  U,  by  C.  S.  Beardslee  i 

All  rights  reserved 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U,  S,  A. 


To  my  sister  Alice — 

A  living  blend 

Of  love  and  loyalty, 

Of  modesty  and  immortal  hope. 


773128 


PREFACE 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  man  among  men.  He  was 
earnest  and  keen.  He  was  honest  and  kind.  He  was 
humble  and  inwardly  refined.  He  was  a  freeman  in  very 
deed.  His  conscience  was  king. 

These  few  words  contain  the  total  sum  of  the  following 
book.  In  unfolding  what  they  severally  mean,  and  what 
their  living  unison  implies,  the  aim  has  been  to  bring  to 
view  the  clear  and  simple  beauty  of  a  noble  personality; 
to  show  how  such  a  human  life  contains  the  final  test  of 
any  proper  claim  in  all  the  bounds  of  Ethical  research; 
and  to  stir  in  thoughtful  minds  the  query  whether  such 
a  character  as  Lincoln's  life  displays,  instinct  as  it  is  with 
Godliness,  may  not  yield  forms  of  statement  ample  and 
exact  enough  for  all  the  essential  formulas  of  pure  Religion. 

Assuredly  his  aspirations  were  ideal.  Quite  as  certainly 
his  ways  with  men  were  practical.  The  call  and  need 
today  of  just  his  qualities  are  past  debate. 

If  only  in  our  national  senate  chamber  the  ever-shifting 
group  of  senators  could  hear  the  voice  of  Lincoln  at  every 
roll-call  and  in  each  debate !  If  only  in  all  our  universities 
our  studious  youth  could  glean  each  day  from  Lincoln,  as 
he  speaks  of  politics  and  of  logic,  of  ethics  and  of  history ! 
If  only  in  every  editorial  room,  where  current  events  are 
registered  and  reviewed,  Lincoln's  wit  and  wisdom  might 
illumine  and  advise!  If  only  at  every  council,  conference, 
or  convention,  where  leaders  of  our  churches  debate 
religious  themes,  the  reverence  of  Lincoln  might  preside! 
If  only  in  the  council  chambers  where  directors  meet  to 
plan  and  govern  our  modern  enterprises  in  industry  and 


6  PREFACE 

finance,  Lincoln's  broad  humaneness  might  be  felt!  If 
only  every  artist  at  his  exalted  and  elusive  task  could 
every  day  obtain  new  views  of  Lincoln's  full  nobility!  If 
only  toilers  in  the  shop  and  field  could  feel  each  day  the 
friendly  brotherhood  in  Lincoln's  rough,  hard  hand! 

Then  toil,  while  losing  naught  of  eagerness,  would  be 
come  content.  Art,  while  losing  naught  of  beauty,  would 
become  unfailingly  ennobling.  Commerce,  while  losing 
naught  of  enterprise,  would  grow  benign.  Religion,  while 
retaining  a  becoming  dignity,  would  not  fail  to  be  sincere. 
The  public  press  would  grow  more  savory  and  sane.  Our 
schools  would  be  nurseries  of  manliness.  And  our  con 
science  would  be  embodied  in  our  law. 

But  Lincoln's  face  is  vanished.  Lincoln's  voice  is 
hushed.  What  remains  is  that  Lincoln's  sentiments  be 
republished  every  day  in  lives  that  reverence  and  repro 
duce  his  excellence.  To  indicate  this  path,  to  embolden 
and  embody  this  aspiration  is  the  service  this  volume 
undertakes. 

Throughout  this  study,  thought  is  fastened  centrally 
upon  Lincoln's  last  inaugural  address.  There  Lincoln 
stands  complete.  And  that  completeness  is  vividly  con 
scious  in  Lincoln's  own  understanding.  Eleven  days  after 
its  delivery,  and  one  month  before  his  death,  he  wrote  to 
Thurlow  Weed,  saying  that  he  expected  that  speech  "to 
wear  as  well  as — perhaps  better  than — anything  I  have 
produced."  Of  almost  incredible  brevity,  containing  as 
it  left  his  hands,  but  five  short  paragraphs,  the  compass 
and  burden  of  thought  within  that  address  are  every  way 
notable.  It  is  in  fact  Lincoln's  digest  of  the  course  and 
trend  of  our  national  life;  while  on  the  side  of  character  it 
is  replete  with  telling  intimations  of  Lincoln's  own  moral 
effort,  purpose,  and  point  of  view.  Here  are  in  visible 
action  all  the  elements  of  essential  manhood,  all  the  vir- 


PREFACE  7 

tues  of  a  balanced  character.  Here  are  insight,  judgment, 
resolution.  Here  is  momentum.  Here  is  something  that 
endures.  Here  are  ends  worth  any  cost.  Here  is  wariest 
use  of  means.  And  here  are  wrongs,  engendering  anguish, 
and  mortal  strife.  And  here  are  ultimate  alternatives. 
And  all  is  grasped  and  even  merged  in  Lincoln  as  he  speaks. 
Here  is  wealth  of  ready  matter  and  direct  allusion  quite 
enough  for  any  volume  to  lay  open  and  assess. 

Such  a  moral  inventory  and  evaluation  this  study 
undertakes.  Its  method  is  to  subject  this  short  address 
to  the  strictest  ethical  analysis,  to  identify  the  elements 
that  are  integral  and  cardinal  in  the  moral  being  of  God, 
and  man,  and  government.  Then,  to  articulate  and 
unify  these  elements  into  a  vital  ethical  synthesis,  to 
demonstrate  and  manifest  the  living  unison  of  character. 
Then,  to  designate  and  undertake  to  clarify  the  major 
problems  which  such  an  analysis  and  such  a  synthesis  of 
such  a  speech  and  such  a  man  open  to  a  student's  mind. 

In  this  procedure  it  is  the  aim  to  show  how  from  first  to 
last  in  Lincoln's  life  his  mental  clarity  and  his  moral 
honesty  are  held  in  model  parity;  how  in  his  daily  walk 
law  and  liberty  go  hand  in  hand;  how  his  cardinal  moral 
qualities  are  to  be  defined;  and  how  these  elemental  vir 
tues  may  avail  in  their  own  authority  and  right  to  guide 
the  eyes  of  men  towards  beauty,  to  guard  the  souls  of  men 
against  despair,  to  find  the  stable  base  of  government, 
to  overcome  all  guilt  by  grace,  to  prove  the  perfect  man 
liness  of  patience,  to  ground  the  thought  of  men  upon 
reality,  to  pierce  the  gloom  of  woe,  to  find  the  core  of 
piety,  to  perfect  persuasive  speech,  and  to  win  a  vision 
of  the  soul.  Hereby  and  thus  it  may  at  last  stand  plain 
that  in  the  soul  of  Lincoln  there  is  a  moral  universe;  and 
that  within  the  verities  and  mysteries  of  this  universe  he 


8  PREFACE 

alone  is  truly  wise  and  fully  free  who  knows  and  proves 
the  worth  of  faith. 

That  so  broad  a  study  should  be  based  upon  so  brief  a 
speech,  or  indeed  upon  Lincoln's  single  personality,  may 
seem  to  some  a  fatal  fault.  Such  a  thought,  when  facing 
such  a  method  and  such  a  theme,  is  surely  natural.  As 
to  its  validity  there  need  be  no  debate.  The  field  is  free. 
Let  any  number  of  other  speeches,  or  of  other  people  be 
assembled  and  placed  beside  the  material  handled  in  this 
book,  for  its  re-examination.  In  such  a  process,  the 
further  it  is  pursued,  if  only  Lincoln  and  the  words  of  this 
inaugural  are  also  held  in  thorough  and  continual  review, 
it  may  come  the  more  fully  clear  that  in  a  theme  like 
ethics  mere  multitude  is  not  the  measure  of  immensity; 
that  the  structure  of  this  book  is  organic,  not  mechanical; 
that  the  single  chapter  on  Lincoln's  Moral  Unison  com 
prehends  all  that  the  volume  anywhere  contains  or  inti 
mates;  that  all  the  problems  handled  in  Part  IV  are  only 
sample  studies,  and  handled  only  suggestively;  that  the 
volume  might  be  expanded  indefinitely  or  much  reduced, 
and  its  significance  remain  in  either  case  unchanged;  that 
correspondingly  Lincoln's  last  inaugural  and  Lincoln's 
public  life,  each  and  both,  outline  in  very  deed  a  moral 
universe;  that  to  rightly  understand  this  single  character 
and  this  one  address  is  to  understand  humanity,  and 
identify  the  ethical  finalities;  that  to  scan  the  soul  of 
Lincoln  in  his  religious  attitudes  is  to  gaze  upon  God's 
image,  and  face  the  reality  and  the  rationale  of  the  true 
religious  life;  and  that,  in  consequence,  any  reader  who 
hesitates  to  venture  such  vast  conclusions  upon  so  scant 
material  may  finally  be  induced  to  submit  to  a  substantial 
remeasurement  his  present  estimates  of  brevity  and 
breadth. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I.    INTRODUCTION 

Lincoln's  Mental  Energy 13 

Lincoln's  Moral  Earnestness 18 

PART  II.    ANALYSIS 

His  Reverence  for  Law — Conscience 21 

His  Jealousy  for  Liberty — Free-will 29 


His  Kindliness — Love . 
His  Pureness — Life. . . . 
His  Constancy — Truth 
His  Humility— Worth. 


The  Cardinal  Virtues. . 


40 

48 
58 
67 


PART  III.    SYNTHESIS 

Lincoln's  Moral  Unison 80 

PART  IV.    STUDIES 

His  Symmetry — The  Problem  of  Beauty 91 

His  Composure — The  Problem  of  Pessimism 98 

His  Authority — The  Problem  of  Government 108 

His  Versatility— The  Problem  of  Mercy 118 

His  Patience — The  Problem  of  Meekness 128 

His  Rise  from  Poverty — The  Problem  of  Industrial 
ism 139 

His  Philosophy— The  Problem  of  Reality 155 

His  Theodicy— The  Problem  of  Evil 164 


CONTENTS 

His  Piety— The  Problem  of  Religion 178 

His  Logic — The  Problem  of  Persuasion 190 

His  Personality — The  Problem  of  Psychology 199 

PART  V.    CONCLUSION 

Lincoln's  Character 215 

Lincoln's  Preference 220 

AN  EPILOGUE— Addressed  to  Theologians 229 

LAST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. .  242 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 


PART  I.    INTRODUCTION 

LINCOLN'S  MENTAL  ENERGY 


IN  ethics,  if  anywhere,  a  master  needs  to  be  mentally 
sane  and  strong.  Truth  cannot  be  trifled  with  here. 
Error  here,  whether  in  judgment  or  as  to  fact,  is  fatal. 
Insight  to  exactly  discern,  and  balance  to  considerately 
compare  must  be  the  mental  instincts  of  a  moralist. 

How  was  this  with  Lincoln?  What  was  his  outfit  and 
what  his  discipline  mentally?  Was  he  unfailingly  shrewd? 
Was  he  sufficiently  sage?  Was  he  by  instinct  and  by 
habit  truly  an  explorer  and  a  philosopher?  Did  he  have 
in  store,  and  did  he  have  in  hand,  the  needful  wealth  of 
pertinent  facts?  Had  he  the  logical  strength  and  breadth 
to  set  them  all  in  order  and  to  see  them  all  as  one? 

Such  inquiries  are  severe — too  severe  to  be  pressed  or 
faced  by  anyone  in  haste.  But  in  this  study  of  Lincoln 
such  inquiries  are  not  to  be  escaped.  To  fairly  answer 
them  is  worth  to  any  man  the  toil  of  many  days.  For 
just  as  surely  as  such  research  is  resolutely  pushed  through 
all  its  course,  the  eye  will  come  to  see  where  wisdom  dwells, 
and  to  learn  what  mental  judgment  and  mental  insight 
truly  mean.  And  it  will  grow  clear  as  day  that  Lincoln 
mentally,  as  well  as  physically,  was  no  weakling;  that  in 
intellect,  as  in  stature,  he  stands  among  the  first. 

In  many  places  this  stands  clear.  There  is  no  better 
way  to  trace  it  out  than  to  start  from  his  last  inaugural. 
To  fully  explore  one  single  paragraph  of  this  address,  the 
paragraph  with  which  it  opens,  will  make  one's  examina- 

13 


14  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

tion  of  Lincoln's  mental  competence  all  but  complete. 
Its  opening  sentence  alludes  to  his  first  inaugural.  That 
one  allusion  will  repay  pursuit. 

There  Lincoln  assumed  the  presidency.  In  that  act 
add  u'ider  that  oath  he  stepped  to  the  executive  headship 
of  the  Republic.  By  that  step  he  faced  seven  states  in 
secession.  It  was  a  civil  crisis,  never  one  more  grave,  or 
dark,  or  ominous.  It  threatened  to  subvert  our  national 
history  and  to  undermine  our  national  hope.  It  was 
crowding  on  towards  bloody  war  a  debate  that  dealt  with 
the  very  basis  of  manhood  in  men.  To  see  the  meaning  of 
that  crisis  and  to  govern  its  issue  required  an  eye  and  a 
mind  of  Godlike  vision  and  poise. 

Here  is  an  excellent  place  to  examine  the  outfit  and  the 
action  of  Lincoln's  intellect.  His  first  inaugural  is  a 
masterpiece  of  intellectual  equipoise  and  energy.  Any 
mind  that  will  fasten  firmly  upon  the  substance  and  the 
sequence  of  its  thought  may  feel  distinctly  the  struggle, 
and  the  strength,  and  the  steadiness  of  Lincoln's  mind. 
His  arguments  and  his  admonitions  are  impressive  models 
of  sanity  and  power.  Which  is  the  more  notable,  his 
insight  or  his  outlook,  it  is  hard  to  tell.  The  marvel  is 
that  the  soberness  and  the  force  of  his  appeal  rest  quite 
as  firmly  upon  the  prophetic  as  upon  the  historic  base. 
So  clear  is  his  grasp  of  the  past,  so  sure  is  his  sense  of  the 
present,  and  so  deliberate  is  the  poise  of  his  judicial  thought 
that  his  vision  into  the  future  has  been  found  by  time  to 
be  unerringly  true. 

Let  any  student  put  this  to  test.  That  address  is  an 
appeal.  From  beginning  to  end  it  pleads.  Set  all  its 
parts  asunder.  Then  bind  them  all  together  as  Lincoln 
has  done.  And  so  find  out  what  are  its  elements;  whence 
they  are  gathered;  what  is  fact;  what  is  principle;  what  is 
prophecy;  on  what  plan  they  are  assembled;  by  what  art 


LINCOLN'S   CARDINAL  TRAITS  15 

they  are  displayed;  to  what  they  owe  their  force;  if  in  any 
spot  of  its  argument  there  is  a  break;  and  if  the  onset  of 
the  whole  is  irresistible.  Distinct  replies  to  these  distin< ' 
inquiries  will  tell  one  all  he  needs  to  know  about  Lincoln's 
mental  strength.  Without  wandering  any  further  one 
can  find  that  Lincoln's  methods  and  conquests  attest  a 
student's  patience,  and  a  scholar's  power;  that  his  wisdom 
was  ripe,  entirely  adequate  to  devise  safe  counsel  for  a 
Nation  in  civil  strife. 

A  striking  feature  of  the  address  is  its  philosophic  finish. 
Though  solidly  set  in  concrete  facts,  and  fitted  ideally  to 
the  day  of  its  delivery,  it  is  replete  with  counsel  good  for 
every  tune,  so  phrased  as  to  become  the  very  proverbs  of 
civil  politics.  Total  paragraphs  are  little  more  than  clus 
tered  apothegms  of  consummate  statesmanship.  To  get 
the  style  and  cast  of  Lincoln's  mind  let  any  student  com 
prehend  the  girth,  and  ponder  the  weight  of  each  follow 
ing  sentence,  all  gathered  from  this  one  address: — 

The  intention  of  the  lawgiver  is  the  law. 

I  hold  that  in  contemplation  of  universal  law,  and  of 
the  Constitution,  the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpetual. 

Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  funda 
mental  law  of  all  national  governments. 

It  is  safe  to  assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had 
a  provision  in  its  organic  law  for  its  own  termination. 

Continue  to  execute  all  the  express  provisions  of  our 
national  Constitution,  and  the  Union  will  endure  forever. 

Can  a  contract  be  peaceably  unmade  by  less  than  all 
the  parties  who  made  it? 

That  in  legal  contemplation  the  Union  is  perpetual  is 
confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  Union  itself. 

No  State  upon  its  own  mere  motion  can  lawfully  get  out 
of  the  Union. 


16  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single  instance  in  which  a  plainly 
written  provision  has  ever  been  denied. 

All  the  vital  rights  of  minorities  and  of  individuals  are 
so  plainly  assured  to  them  by  affirmations  and  negations, 
guarantees  and  provisions  in  the  Constitution,  that  con 
troversies  never  arise  concerning  them. 

If  the  minority  will  not  acquiesce,  the  majority  must, 
or  the  government  must  cease. 

If  a  minority  in  such  case  will  secede  rather  than  ac 
quiesce,  they  make  a  precedent  which  in  turn  will  divide 
and  ruin  them. 

Plainly  the  central  idea  of  secession  is  the  essence  of 
anarchy. 

A  majority,  held  in  restraint  by  constitutional  checks 
and  limitations,  and  always  changing  easily  with  deliberate 
changes  of  popular  opinions  and  sentiments,  is  the  only 
true  sovereign  of  a  free  people. 

Unanimity  is  impossible. 

One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right  and 
ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is  wrong 
and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the  only  substan 
tial  dispute. 

Physically  speaking  we  cannot  separate. 

Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends  can  make 
laws? 

Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced  between  aliens 
than  laws  among  friends? 

Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  cannot  fight  always. 

This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the  people 
who  inherit  it. 

The  chief  magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from  the 
people. 

Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  justice  of  the  people? 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  17 

If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  nations,  with  his  eternal  truth 
and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours  of 
the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely  prevail 
by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the  American 
people. 

This  people  have  wisely  given  their  public  servants  but 
little  power  for  mischief. 

Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost  by  taking  time. 

Here  are  six  and  twenty  sentences,  culled  from  this  one 
address,  that  are  nothing  less  than  the  maxims  of  a  polit 
ical  sage,  as  lasting  as  they  are  apt.  As  a  glove  fits  a 
hand,  so  did  these  counsels  fit  that  day.  As  the  needle 
guides  all  ships  that  sail,  so  their  wisdom  directs  all  poli 
tics  still.  They  embody  sure  witness  of  an  eye  that  is 
keen  to  see — none  more  narrowly;  and  of  a  mind  that  is 
trained  to  think — none  more  thoroughly.  Their  author 
was  a  man  who  knew.  He  knew  the  past.  He  knew 
things  current.  He  knew  what  their  coming  issues  were 
sure  to  be.  He  knew  the  grounds  of  government.  He 
knew  the  omens  of  anarchy.  He  knew  the  awful  possi 
bilities  in  fraternal  hate.  And  he  knew  the  need  and  the 
awful  cost  of  patient  forbearance.  Here  is  a  man  well 
past  childhood  intellectually.  He  has  the  eye  and  the 
mind  of  a  man  long  schooled  by  discipline.  And  he  has  a 
tongue  expert  in  speech,  well  freighted  with  tremendous 
sense,  but  lucid  too,  and  graceful,  and  void  of  all  offense. 
This  one  address  displays  a  man,  though  pathetically  un 
familiar  with  childhood  schools,  of  consummate  intellec 
tual  balance  and  force. 

But  for  its  cherished  end  this  inaugural  proved  pathet 
ically  incompetent.  And  when  it  became  his  duty  to 
pronounce  a  second  inaugural  oath,  the  Nation  had  been 
four  years  in  terrible  war.  That  war  levied  a  terrible 
tax  upon  the  president's  intellectual  strength.  The  men- 


18  LINCOLN'S   CARDINAL  TRAITS 

tal  perplexities  of  those  endless  days  and  nights  cannot 
be  told.  Much  less  can  they  be  understood.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  any  other  man  could  have  brought  a 
mind  to  uphold  and  command  those  years  with  any  ap 
proach  to  Lincoln's  mental  honesty.  It  was,  under  God, 
within  the  steadfast,  tenacious  grasp  of  Lincoln's  exhaust- 
less  and  invincible  mental  loyalty  that  our  national  destiny 
lay  secure.  To  all  the  phases  of  all  the  problems  of  all 
those  years,  and  to  his  own  judgment  and  endeavor  con 
cerning  them  all,  this  same  first  paragraph  of  his  second 
inaugural  also  alludes.  This  allusion,  too,  if  any  one 
would  compass  the  full  measure  of  Lincoln's  mental 
strength,  demands  review,  and  will  reward  pursuit.  The 
records  are  well  preserved.  And  they  bear  abounding 
witness  to  Lincoln's  almost  superhuman  sanity  and  in 
sight  and  energy  and  mental  equilibrium.  If  any  one  will 
follow  through  this  honest  and  perfectly  honorable  hint, 
he  will  come  to  feel  that  the  mind  of  Lincoln  was  the 
Nation's  crucible  in  which  all  the  Nation's  problems  were 
resolved. 

LINCOLN'S  MORAL  EARNESTNESS 

IN  the  central  paragraph  of  his  last  inaugural  Lincoln 
enshrined  compelling  demonstration  of  his  moral  sound 
ness.  That  single  paragraph  is  nothing  less  than  a  solid 
section  of  a  finished  moral  philosophy.  It  reckons  right 
and  wrong  incapable  of  any  reconciliation,  God  as  Al 
mighty  Judge,  and  all  his  judgments  just.  But  that 
opinion  was  no  word  in  haste.  Deliberate  as  he  always 
was,  when  voicing  any  estimate  as  President,  never  was 
he  more  deliberate  than  when  penning  that  moral  explana 
tion  of  the  war.  In  four  stern  years  he  had  been  revolving 
surveying  and  and  pondering  that  sternest  of  all  debates: — 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  19 

Should  the  war  go  on  or  should  it  cease?  Every  argu 
ment  on  either  side,  that  heart  or  thought  of  man  could 
feel  or  see,  had  been  driven  by  every  sense  into  the  faith 
ful  heed  of  his  honest  soul.  He  bent  his  ear  obediently 
to  every  plea,  binding  his  patient  mind  to  register  fairly 
every  weighty  word,  designing  with  absolute  honesty 
that,  when  at  last  he  spoke  the  executive  decree,  his  de 
cision  should  bind  the  Nation  for  the  single  perfect  reason 
that  it  was  right.  And  when  finally  and  persistently  he 
upheld  the  war  and  ordered  its  relentless  prosecution  to 
the  end,  no  one  may  truthfully  charge  that  opinion  and 
command  to  ignorance  or  malice,  to  prejudice  or  haste. 
Moral  grounds  alone  were  the  basis  and  motive  of  that 
conclusion  and  behest.  The  war  was  caused  by  slavery. 
With  Southern  success  slavery  would  spread  and  become 
perpetual.  If  slavery  was  not  wrong,  nothing  was  wrong. 
That  this  great  wrong  should  be  restrained  and  in  the 
end  removed,  the  war  must  be  put  through. 

But  that  was  not  all  his  thought  and  argument  in  this 
last  inaugural.  The  war,  for  the  time,  parted  the  Nation 
sectionally.  But  the  sin  and  guilt  of  slavery,  in  Lincoln's 
feeling,  rested  upon  the  Nation  as  a  whole;  and  upon  the 
Nation  as  a  whole  he  adjudged  the  burden  of  its  woe. 
Here  the  moral  grandeur  of  Lincoln  comes  fully  into  view. 
His  affirmation  of  that  awful  iniquity,  inwrought  in  two 
centuries  and  a  half  of  slavery,  is  no  pharisaic  indictment 
of  the  South.  It  is  a  repentant  confession  of  his  own  and 
all  the  Nation's  equal  part  in  its  infinite  wrong.  Among 
the  guilty  authors  and  abettors  of  that  wrong  he  identifies 
himself.  He  deems  the  war  God's  righteous  judgment 
upon  the  national  inhumanity,  and  meekly  bows  his  head, 
among  the  humblest  and  most  afflicted  of  those  who  suffer 
and  sorrow  beneath  that  scourge. 

That  kindly  fellowship  with  all  the  Nation  in  the  sor- 


20  LINCOLN'S   CARDINAL  TRAITS 

rows  of  the  war,  with  its  lowly  confession  of  all  the  guilt, 
and  its  patient  endurance  of  all  the  atoning  cost,  pro 
claims  and  demonstrates  that  Lincoln's  respect  for  right 
eousness  was  supreme.  It  betokens  a  living  sense  of  law, 
a  hearty  assent  to  duty,  a  careful  reckoning  of  guilt,  an 
uncomplaining  readiness  to  own  and  rectify  all  wrong,  a 
manly  purpose  to  inaugurate  a  new  rule  of  equity,  a  rever 
ent  acknowledgment  of  God,  an  ideal  esteem  for  manhood 
everywhere,  freedom  from  the  dominion  of  greed,  friend 
liness  for  the  erring,  pity  for  the  hurt  and  poor.  Above 
all  it  shows  the  faith  of  a  moral  seer  in  its  manifest  con 
fidence  that  human  evil,  and  all  its  awful  sorrow,  are 
under  the  joint  divine  and  human  control  and  can  be 
absolutely  and  joyfully  overthrown  and  done  away. 

Here  is  a  type  of  manhood  that,  under  the  discipline  of 
God,  grew  sterling  to  the  core,  and  by  a  signal  favoring 
Providence  provided  an  ample  basis  for  a  national  moral 
ideal.  Here  is  an  ideal  where  conscience  and  righteous 
ness  stand  in  close  affiance,  where  liberty  springs  from 
equity,  and  where  pity  never  fails.  Here  is  a  person 
and  a  name  worthy  and  able  demonstrably  to  inspire  and 
lead  to  national  triumph  a  new  political  league.  And  here 
is  an  official  whose  spontaneous  honesty  has  left  upon  all 
his  state  papers  an  indelible  moral  stamp,  creating  there 
by  out  of  his  official  documents  a  national  literature  of 
finished  peauty  and  excellence  and  power. 


PART  II.    ANALYSIS 

His  REVERENCE  FOR  LAW — CONSCIENCE 

DEEPLY  set  within  the  heart  of  Lincoln  in  this  last  in 
augural  was  his  binding  sense  of  right.  This  obligation 
was  civic.  The  speech  can  be  described  as  a  statement 
of  what  a  loyal  citizen  under  confederate  law  is  bound  to 
do,  when  his  civic  loyalty  is  put  to  a  final  test.  It  is  an 
illustration  of  obedience  facing  rebellion.  It  is  an  exposi 
tion  of  a  confederate's  duty,  when  confederates  secede. 
It  is  a  civilian's  announcement  of  the  law  that  is  singly 
and  surely  sovereign,  when  the  sole  alternative  in  the 
Nation's  life  is  dissolution  or  blood.  It  is  a  revelation  of 
the  law  that  still  prevails  among  and  above  a  Republic  of 
freemen,  when  all  law  is  faced  by  the  challenge  and  defi 
ance  of  war. 

Here  is  a  supreme  exhibit  of  a  solid  co-efficient  in 
Lincoln's  character.  It  shows  in  a  commanding  way  how 
moral  duty  held  dominion  in  his  life.  He  had  no  pre 
dilection  for  war.  That  he  must  face  its  menace,  or  for 
swear  his  fealty  to  his  freeman's  covenant,  was  a  pathetic 
fate.  And  when  in  that  alternative  he  upheld  his  oath 
and  endured  the  war,  it  is  past  all  denial  that  he  was  bow 
ing  under  an  inexorable  constraint.  He  was  plainly  order 
ing  his  speech  and  conduct  in  submission  to  an  all-com 
manding,  all-reviewing  moral  regimen.  His  will  was 
listening  to  a  moral  behest.  His  judgment  was  pondering 
a  moral  choice.  His  eye  was  forecasting  a  moral  award. 

21 


22  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

He  was  shaping  sovereign  issues  with  a  sovereign  responsi 
bility. 

This  experience  and  this  expression  of  Lincoln's  life 
unearths  foundations  in  his  character  which  demand  pre 
cise  examination.  What  was  the  nature  of  the  law  which 
held  and  swayed  the  soul  of  Lincoln  with  such  an  over 
mastering  control?  Whence  came  its  authority?  Where 
in  rested  its  validity?  Is  there  record  of  its  origin  and 
authorship?  Where  is  it  recorded?  By  wrhose  hand  was 
it  transcribed?  Precisely  what  are  its  so  imperative 
terms? 

In  attempting  an  answer,  one's  first  impulse  is  to  say  that 
in  this  address  Lincoln  was  speaking  as  citizen  and  official, 
as  subject  and  chief  executive  of  an  openly  organized  civil 
government,  with  written  Constitution  and  laws;  and 
that  what  he  was  saying  in  this  inaugural  address  con 
tained  and  involved  no  more  and  no  less  than  those  regu 
lations  expressed ;  that  he  simply  adopted  and  echoed  what 
they  defined  and  described;  that  the  sole  and  only  author 
ity  he  assumed  to  cite  or  urge  was  this  well-known  pub 
lished  law  of  the  land;  and  that  in  those  open  records  one 
may  find  in  fullness  and  precision  the  full  definition  of 
the  nature  and  validity,  the  authority  and  authorship  and 
origin,  the  very  terms  and  abiding  form  of  all  the  moral 
mandates  he  here  obeyed. 

In  such  a  statement  there  is  abounding  truth.  Lincoln 
explicitly  shows  explicit  allegiance  in  all  his  political  life 
to  the  dominion  of  our  national  law.  He  revered  our 
Constitution.  And  that  the  Constitution  should  like 
wise  be  revered  by  all  was  all  he  gave  his  life  to  realize. 
Grounded  as  that  Constitution  was  upon  our  American 
Bill  of  Rights,  acknowledging  as  it  did  that  all  men  wrere 
created  equal,  owning  as  it  openly  did  the  sovereignty  of 
the  popular  will,  and  allowing  no  other  lord,  he  found 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  23 

within  its  reverent  and  reverend  affirmations  the  dignity, 
authority,  and  power  all-sufficient  and  supremely  valid 
for  him  as  a  fellow-citizen  among  his  fellowmen. 

But  in  such  a  statement  something  is  left  unsaid.  As 
one  listens  through  this  address  to  Lincoln's  voice,  he 
instantly  and  continuously  feels  that  he  is  hearing  there 
no  mere  echo  of  quoted  words.  There  is  in  the  vibrant 
tone  a  note  that  is  original.  His  voice  is  his  own.  His 
words  are  of  his  own  selection.  His  phrases  were  fashioned 
by  himself.  His  paragraphs  embody  the  shape  and  bear 
the  stamp  of  his  peculiar  and  painstaking  invention  and 
argument.  In  his  utterance  are  the  inflection  and  accent, 
the  very  passion  of  unforced  and  independent  conviction. 
He  speaks  as  one  who  finds  within  himself,  in  some  true 
sense,  the  authority  for  what  he  says. 

But  not  merely  are  his  words  valid  for  himself,  as  he 
shapes  his  ordered  speech.  They  are  irrepressible.  His 
convictions  throb  with  urgency.  The  constraint  to  which 
he  bows  is  enthroned  and  exercised  within.  The  law  he 
obeys  is  just  as  truly  a  law  he  ordains.  But  on  either 
view  it  is  a  mandate  which  he  humbly  and  grandly  obeys. 
It  is  an  imperative  to  which  he  yields  his  life. 

Just  here  emerges  another  phase  of  his  amenability  to 
law.  It  operates  as  an  impulse  to  plead.  It  drives  him 
to  the  rostrum,  and  makes  of  him  one  of  the  foremost 
masters  of  public  address  our  civic  life  and  history  have 
produced.  As  Lincoln  voices  this  address  he  is  speaking 
not  merely  to  himself,  nor  for  himself,  nor  to  ease  and  un 
burden  his  mind,  nor  yet  to  open  and  indicate  his  view. 
As  he  spoke  those  words  his  eye  was  fixed  upon  a  mighty 
multitude  of  his  fellowmen.  As  he  unfolded  his  thought 
before  their  attentive,  waiting  minds,  it  was  as  though  a 
banner  were  being  unfurled  to  symbolize  and  signify  to  a 
Nation's  multitudes  the  sovereign  duty  of  all  true  patriots. 


24  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

In  that  transaction  he  became  undeniably  prophet  and 
lawgiver  to  the  Nation.  The  obligations  that  supremely 
bind  his  life  he  urges  and  attests  as  binding  with  equal 
and  evident  urgency  upon  the  millions  upon  millions  of 
the  members  in  the  same  free  and  solemn  political  league. 
When  his  speech  is  done,  he  would  have  all  who  hear  con 
joined  indefeasibly  with  him  in  loyalty  to  his  law.  Every 
sentence  of  the  address  bears  evidence  of  this  design.  He 
is  aiming  to  bring  the  Nation's  conscience  and  will  to 
embody  and  obey  the  identical  mandates  that  govern  him. 

But  his  appeal  is  vestured  in  ideal  deference.  He  deals 
with  law.  But  he  does  not  command.  Throughout  his 
solemn  exposition  there  is  no  note  or  hint  of  dictatorship 
of  any  sort.  Not  a  breath  in  any  accent  suggests  any 
undertaking  to  coerce.  He  simply  strives,  as  a  man  with 
his  friend,  to  persuade. 

And  yet  as  he  sets  forth  his  speech,  within  the  comely 
apparel  of  its  courteous  words  gleams  the  regal  form  of 
duty,  imperial  offspring  of  inflexible  law.  Those  words 
were  110  empty  phrasings  of  indifferent  platitudes,  dis 
posed  and  pronounced  to  dignify  a  passing  pageant  in  the 
formal  rounds  of  our  civic  life.  They  trembled  with 
anxiety.  He  spoke  of  nothing  less  than  the  Nation's  life 
and  death,  the  Nation's  duty,  and  the  Nation's  doom. 
The  honor  of  the  Republic  was  being  sternly  tried,  to  see 
if  it  was  sound  or  rotten  in  its  very  heart.  Lincoln  was 
dealing  with  things  that  all  men  owned  to  be  above  all 
price.  He  was  striving,  as  for  life,  to  achieve  agreement 
as  to  duties  that  should  transcend  all  possible  denial.  He 
was  trying  to  fasten  upon  every  American  conscience  con 
straints  that  no  American  conscience  could  possibly  escape. 

Here  is  a  cognizance  of  law  and  deference  before  its 
claims  that  is  curiously  composite,  if  not  complex,  or  even 
innerly  contraposed.  He  acknowledges  the  written  Con- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  25 

stitution  to  bind  all  citizens  with  supreme  authority; 
and  gives  his  solemn  oath  to  honor,  uphold,  and  execute 
its  plain  behests.  He  as  plainly  betrays  the  presence 
within  his  individual  breast  of  a  moral  sovereign  to  which 
he  bows  with  just  as  loyal  reverence.  And  before  every 
man  with  whom  he  pleads  he  orders  his  behavior,  even 
while  he  pleads,  as  before  a  throne  whose  moral  majesty 
he  kiis  no  right  or  power  to  nullify.  And  yet  within  the 
terms  embodying  such  a  deference  he  expounds  the  genesis 
and  justifies  the  conduct  of  a  long-drawn  civil  conflict,  in 
which  his  own  official  decrees  can  be  carried  out  only  by 
the  aid  of  the  death  and  desolation  entailed  by  war.  And 
when,  despite  death-dealing  guns  and  deferential  pleas 
alike,  vast  multitudes  of  men,  even  all  the  captains  and 
armies  of  the  South,  despise  his  arguments  and  defy  his 
arms,  he  continues  to  urge  his  convictions  and  appeals, 
and  to  reinforce  his  words  with  war. 

Can  such  a  complex  attitude  be  shown  and  seen  to  rest 
in  moral  harmony?  Were  his  conscience,  and  the  Con 
stitution,  and  his  deference  before  other  men,  and  his 
summons  of  the  land  to  arms  equally  and  alike  compelling 
morally,  all  indeed  morally  akin?  Beneath  the  unsparing 
gaze  of  his  conscience-searching  eye,  under  all  the  awful 
testing  of  his  loyalty  to  oath,  in  all  his  patient  and  per 
sistent  pleadings  for  other  men's  agreement,  and  through 
all  the  torture  and  distress  of  war,  what  explanation  and 
account  can  be  given  of  any  obligation  adequate  to  bind 
and  justify  his  course?  Instinct  himself  with  deference, 
and  averse  to  any  form  of  tyranny,  how  could  he  so  rigidly 
refuse  to  yield?  Prone  toward  conciliation  in  every  fiber 
of  his  life,  how  did  he  inwardly,  how  could  he  openly  vin 
dicate  his  unbending  determination  to  uphold  his  faith, 
and  carry  through  the  war? 

This  forces  a  final  and  vital  inquiry  touching  the  nature 


26  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

of  the  law  that  was  so  regnant  and  compelling  in  Lincoln's 
personal  life;  and  that  he  was  struggling  here  in  this  ad 
dress  with  such  consuming  desire,  and  by  the  unabetted 
efficiency  of  oral  appeal,  to  implant  in  other  breasts. 
From  Lincoln's  balanced  words  it  stands  apparent  that  the 
problems  bound  up  in  this  inquiry  beleaguered  him  on 
every  side.  His  throbbing  syllables,  and  the  tactics  by 
which  his  sentences  are  arranged,  attest  impressively  that 
while  he  was  facing  problems  too  profound  for  human 
thought  to  solve,  he  was  also  facing  laws  that  he  could  not 
escape,  and  dared  not  disobey.  It  was  not  for  his  kind 
heart  to  sanction  and  encompass  such  a  war,  and  stand 
so  solidly  against  the  solid  South,  while  yet  behaving  with 
so  unfeigned  respect  for  every  other  man,  except  beneath 
compulsion  of  a  law  supremely  gentle  and  invincibly 
severe.  He  was  plainly  viewing  some  behest  too  plain 
to  be  denied,  too  sacred  to  be  disobeyed,  too  insistent  to 
be  withheld,  and  yet  too  reverend  and  benign  to  suffer  any 
champion  to  be  rude — a  behest  around  whose  throne  hung 
sanctions,  true  to  fact,  waiting  to  adjudge,  certain  to 
descend. 

In  the  effort  now  to  trace  in  the  soul  of  Lincoln  the  birth 
and  growth  and  manly  stature  of  this  deep  sense  of  law, 
some  things  stand  plain.  In  this,  his  consciousness  of 
sovereign  duty  and  supreme  allegiance,  Lincoln  stands 
entire.  In  this  address  will  and  thought  and  sentiments 
combine.  He  is  not  swept  against  his  will.  What  he 
decides  he  eagerly  desires.  And  with  his  wrill  and  wish 
his  best  intelligence  co-operates.  If  any  man  essay  to 
overthrow  his  argument,  he  has  the  total  Lincoln  to  over 
turn.  Determined,  impassioned,  and  convinced,  he  con 
fronts  all  men,  whether  they  be  adversaries  or  friends. 
In  his  contention  and  defense  his  being  is  completely  uni 
fied.  He  is  employing  upon  his  master  task  his  total 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  27 

strength.  Distressful,  dark  and  difficult  as  is  his  environ 
ment  and  time,  he  suffers  and  ponders  and  resolves,  with 
forces  undivided,  none  reserved.  With  such  convictions, 
such  desires,  and  such  determination,  the  assurance  in  his 
onset  was  in  itself  triumphant. 

Upon  what  foundations  now  for  such  unyielding  con 
fidence  and  appeal  did  Lincoln  take  his  stand?  For 
Lincoln's  own  deliberate  reply,  let  all  men  read  again,  and 
then  again,  and  still  again,  this  second  inaugural  address. 
Those  words  are  appareled  with  a  beautiful  charity.  But 
from  deep  within  their  kindliness  resounds  the  clear,  firm 
voice  of  heaven-ordered,  all -pre  vailing  law — a  law  that 
comprehends  beneath  its  strong  and  high  dominion  the 
long  career  of  American  slavery,  defining  its  sin,  awarding 
its  doom,  and  dealing  justly  with  the  contending  impre 
cations  and  the  pleading  intercessions  that  strangely 
voice  the  deep  confusion  of  embattling  hosts.  American 
slavery,  its  sin  and  doom — in  his  exposition  of  that  dark 
theme,  Lincoln  gave  his  exposition  of  all-compelling  law. 

All  men  were  created  equal.  The  right  of  all  men  to 
liberty  is  likewise  a  primitive  endowment.  Upon  this 
one  broad  base,  and  upon  no  other,  did  Lincoln  ever  set 
up  any  claim  to  voice  for  himself,  or  for  his  fellowman,  a 
civic  obligation.  To  that  creative  decree  can  be  traced 
all  the  civic  appeals  that  Lincoln  ever  made.  In  fixing 
there  the  ground  of  every  plea,  he  had  indomitable  assur 
ance  of  faith  that  he  was  defining  and  declaring  for  every 
man  an  irreducible  and  ineffaceable  moral  law.  All  men 
were  created  equal.  All  men  were  divinely  entitled  to  be 
free.  That  fiat  of  God  Americans  had  tried  and  dared  to 
invalidate.  Its  authority  it  was  now  the  Almighty's 
purpose,  by  the  obedient  hand  of  Lincoln,  to  reinaugurate. 
Its  simple  terms,  that  had  forever  been  indelible,  were 


28  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

now  to  be  made  universally  legible,  and  everywhere 
visible,  by  the  obedient  consent  of  all  his  fellowmen. 

In  all  of  this  the  chiefest  thing  to  note  is  that  this  same 
all-commanding  moral  law  is  born  within.  Written  pre 
cepts  and  published  constitutions  are  but  transcriptions. 
They  are  not  original.  They  are  only  copies.  Not  at 
the  tip  of  a  moving  pen,  but  in  our  forefathers'  reverent 
and  independent  hearts,  did  our  noble  Constitution  come 
to  birth.  And  in  the  time  of  Lincoln  it  was  in  Lincoln's 
heart  that  this  venerable  law  was  born  again.  In  the 
heart  of  Washington,  in  the  heart  of  Lincoln,  in  the  heart 
of  every  man,  as  fashioned  and  over-shadowed  evermore 
by  God,  all  moral  regimen  has  its  stately  origin. 

To  this  grave  oracle,  deep  within  Lincoln's  Godlike 
soul,  did  Lincoln  fashion  utterance.  To  this  same  rever 
end  oracle,  deep-lodged  within  the  Godlike  soul  of  every 
listener,  Lincoln  made  appeal.  Here  is  all  the  urgency 
of  all  his  argument.  Here  is  the  secret  of  all  his  confidence. 
Herein  alone  shines  all  his  moral  majesty. 

Something  such  was  Lincoln's  exposition  to  himself, 
and  to  his  time,  of  the  majesty  and  mandatory  force  of 
civic  law.  Its  authority  rests  in  God.  Its  validity  rests 
as  well  in  man.  It  has  been  written  down  most  nobly  in 
our  Constitution  and  Bill  of  Rights.  Its  terms  spell  free 
dom  and  equality  for  all.  In  the  light  of  our  common 
human  sentiments,  kindling  within  us  from  heavenly 
fires,  its  printed  copies  may  be  easily  revised.  And  while 
its  concrete  regulations  are  far  too  manifold  for  any  general 
document  to  possibly  contain,  its  dictates  are  all  as  con 
crete  and  corresponsive  to  our  human  civic  life  as  is  the 
heaven-born  and  reverent  human  friendliness  with  which 
the  life  of  Lincoln  was  continually  graced. 

Deferring  then  to  future  pages  all  specific  analysis  and 
appraisal  of  the  pregnant  interior  wealth  of  Lincoln's 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  29 

sense  of  moral  obligation,  two  momentous  affirmations 
touching  Lincoln's  reverence  for  law  lie  already  right  at 
hand.  The  law  he  reverenced  held  high  and  wide  domin 
ion.  It  shaped  and  swayed  and  judged  at  once  and  alike 
both  his  own  and  his  Nation's  destiny. 

And  its  terms  were  plain.  It  was  no  timid,  dusky  lamp, 
held  in  trembling  hand,  throwing  uncertain  rays,  and 
flickering  towards  extinction.  The  law  that  shines  in 
this  inaugural  is  a  glowing,  radiant  orb,  bringing  day  when 
first  it  dawned,  and  shedding  still  full  light  of  day  over 
all  the  earth. 

His  JEALOUSY  FOR  LIBERTY — FREE- WILL 

THIS  second  inaugural  address  had  its  birth  in  the  breast 
of  a  man  freeborn,  and  resolute  to  remain  forever  free. 
To  find  within  this  speech  this  living  seed,  to  trace  and 
sketch  its  bursting  growth,  and  to  gather  up  its  fruit,  is 
well  worth  any  toil  or  cost.  To  begin  with,  this  speech  is 
undeniably  Lincoln's  own.  That  in  any  sense  it  was 
born  of  any  other  man's  dictation,  Lincoln  would  never 
admit,  and  no  other  man  would  ever  affirm.  As  its  words 
gain  voice,  every  listener  feels  that  Lincoln  was  their 
only  author,  and  that  even  in  their  utterance,  though  in 
the  living  presence  of  an  un-numbered  multitude,  this 
speaker  was  standing  in  a  majestic  solitude.  That  ex 
position  of  the  war,  of  the  UnioiL,  and  of  slavery  was  of 
and  by  and  for  himself.  What  he  was  uttering  was  origi 
nal.  The  convictions  he  affirmed  were  his  personal  faith. 
The  decision  his  words  so  delicately  veiled  was  his  per 
sonal  resolve.  The  issue  towards  which  they  aimed  was 
the  outlook  of  his  lone  heart's  hope.  The  appeal  he 
voiced  was  warmed  and  winged  by  his  own  desire.  The 
argument  he  so  deftly  inwrought  was  his  invention  and 


30  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

device.  The  words  he  singled  out  were  his  selection. 
The  total  aspect  and  onset  and  effect  of  the  address,  as  it 
looked  and  worked  on  the  day  of  its  delivery,  and  as  it 
looks  and  works  today,  were  of  his  unforced  and  free 
election  and  intent.  All  the  volume,  burden  and  design 
of  those  pregnant,  urgent,  far-seeing  paragraphs  are  the 
first  hand  product  of  a  freeborn  man,  adapted  and  ad 
dressed  to  men  freeborn. 

Here  is  for  any  student  of  ethics  an  imposing  spectacle. 
For  here  is  a  commanding  demonstration  that  mortal  man 
is  in  very  deed  a  responsible  author  of  moral  deeds.  That 
this  inaugural  scene  gives  this  stupendous  truth  an  in- 
deniable  vindication,  no  man  may  lightly  undertake  to 
disapprove.  But  within  that  undeniable  verity  are  in 
volved  all  the  mighty  revolutions  of  a  moral  universe. 

This  import  of  this  speech  can  never  be  made  too  plain. 
To  this  end  let  any  reader  note  the  fact  that  in  that  stern 
day,  and  in  this  plain  speech,  Lincoln  faced,  and  that 
under  a  pitiless  compulsion,  an  exigent  alternative.  When 
he  penned,  and  when  he  spoke  its  freighted  words,  he 
stood  in  the  very  brunt  of  war.  His  thoughts  were  tracing 
battle  lines.  His  eye  was  fixed  on  bayonets.  Before  him 
stood  far-ranging  ranks  of  men  in  mutual  defiance,  men  at 
variance  upon  fundamental  things,  men  in  conflict  over 
claims  irreconcilable  by  God  or  man.  By  no  device  of 
argument  or  of  compromise  could  those  contending  claims 
become  identical,  or  even  mutually  tolerant.  Men's 
paths  had  parted.  Armies  had  taken  sides.  Difference 
had  deepened  into  intolerance;  intolerance  had  heightened 
into  hate ;  and  hate  had  flared  up  into  war.  Secession  had 
proclaimed  that  the  Union  must  dissolve,  that  confeder 
ates  were  foes,  that  one  Nation  must  be  two.  And  men 
based  their  reasons  for  rending  the  land  and  for  rallying 
ranks  in  arms,  upon  opposing  views  of  God's  decree,  and 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  31 

of  the  nature  of  men.  One  side  claimed  that  God  ordained 
that  black  men  should  be  slaves.  This  claim  the  other 
side  denied;  and  avowed  instead  that  God  in  his  creation 
and  endowment  of  the  human  race  ordained  that  all  men 
should  be  equal  and  free.  So  appalling  and  so  passing 
plain  in  our  political  life  was  the  alternative  which  this 
inaugural  had  to  confront. 

Equally  plain  upon  the  face  of  this  inaugural  is  the  fact 
that,  in  the  presence  of  that  dread  and  stern  alternative, 
Lincoln  made  a  choice.  lie  picked  his  flag.  He  chose 
the  banner  of  the  free.  The  standard  of  the  slaveholder 
he  spurned.  Responsibly,  deliberately,  he  selected  where 
to  stand,  fully  and  consciously  purposing  that  in  such 
selection  he  was  enlisting  and  employing  all  the  voluntary 
powers  of  his  life.  Here  was  conscious  choice.  He  did 
select.  He  did  reject.  He  could  have  taken  another,  an 
oppugnant  stand,  as  many  a  familiar  confederate  did. 
Two  paths  were  surely  possible.  And  they  did  undeni 
ably  diverge.  That  divergence  he  soberly  surveyed,  and 
traced  down  through  all  its  devious  ways  to  their  final 
consequence.  In  act  and  motive,  in  judgment  and  in 
tent,  he  was  self-poised,  self-determined,  self-moved. 
When,  in  this  second  inaugural  scene,  removed  from  his 
former  inaugural  oath  by  four  imperious  years  of  sobering 
and  awakening  thought,  but  facing  still  a  frowning  South, 
he  swore  a  second  time  to  preserve,  protect  and  defend 
the  Constitution — that  was  a  freeman's  choice.  And  it 
was  Lincoln's  own.  Between  his  soul  and  heaven,  as  he 
registered  that  resolve,  no  third  authority  intervened. 
As  he  stood  and  published  and  defined  that  reiterated 
pledge,  his  soul  was  sovereignly,  supremely  free. 

And  within  that  sovereign  freedom  its  even-balanced 
deliberation  should  not  be  overlooked.  Those  days  that 
filed  between  those  two  inaugurals  had  been  replete  with 


32  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

studied  meditation.  The  mighty  problems  precipitated 
by  the  war  he  had  taken  and  turned  and  poised  and  sought 
to  estimate  and  solve  in  every  possible  way.  He  pondered 
every  ounce  of  their  awful  gravity.  He  paced  the  total 
course  of  their  development.  He  knew  our  history,  with 
all  its  ideals  and  all  its  errors  by  heart.  He  inspected 
with  peculiar  carefulness  the  drift  and  trend  of  our  national 
career.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  one  ever  studied  so  inces 
santly  the  current  of  our  affairs,  or  peered  so  anxiously 
and  with  such  far-sighted  calculation  into  the  hidden  and 
distant  issues  of  the  stupendous  enterprise  in  which  he 
was  predestined  to  act  so  commanding  a  part.  So  when 
his  free  decision  was  ushered  forth  and  projected  among 
the  contending  determinations  of  his  day,  to  play  its  part, 
it  was  the  ripe  conclusion  of  a  thoughtful  mind,  like  the 
well-poised  verdict  of  a  judge. 

And  his  free  choice  was  resolute.  His  will  was  without 
wavering.  The  side  he  made  his  own  was  forced  to  face 
the  musketry  and  forts,  the  arsenals  and  fleets,  of  a  would- 
be  nation  of  angry,  determined  men  —  men  who  would 
rather  die  than  yield.  The  choice  he  made  involved  the 
shedding  of  human  blood.  This  he  sadly  knew.  In  four 
endless  years  he  had  been  compelled  to  defend  his  resolu 
tion  with  arms.  And  now  as  he  volunteered  his  oath  a 
second  time,  his  free  decision  involved  again  the  frightful 
corollary  of  war.  This  meant  that  within  his  voluntary 
oath  was  a  conscious  determination,  too  vigorous  and 
resolute  for  any  threat  to  daunt,  for  any  form  of  terror 
to  reverse.  His  choice  was  no  feeble  leaning  to  one  side. 
Into  its  formation  and  into  its  fulfillment  poured  all  the 
energy  of  his  life.  It  was  vastly,  radically  more  than 
impulse,  or  propensity,  or  easy,  unconsidered  inclination. 
It  was  a  freeman's  choice,  poised  and  edged  and  energized 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  33 

by  a  freeman's  will.  It  had  firmness  like  the  firmness  of 
the  hills. 

This  choice  of  Lincoln  was  ponderous.  His  exercise  of 
freedom,  as  shown  in  this  inaugural,  was  dealing,  not  with 
things  indifferent,  not  with  trifles  void  of  moral  moment, 
nor  with  empty,  immaterial  suppositions.  When  Lincoln 
shaped  and  welcomed  to  himself  this  preference,  he  was 
handling  nothing  less  than  the  affronts  of  human  arro 
gance,  the  greed  of  human  avarice,  the  cruelty  of  human 
slavery,  and  a  confederate's  disloyalty.  That  preference 
was  his  free  election  to  enthrone  within  himself,  and  writhin 
all  other  men,  the  stability  of  a  firm  allegiance,  the  grace 
of  human  friendliness,  the  worthy  valuation  of  human 
souls,  and  the  surpassing  beauty  of  a  true  humility.  It 
was  between  such  values  that  his  election  took  its  shape. 
His  decision  dealt  with  things  primary,  enduring,  and 
universal.  It  was  concerned  with  the  elemental  affections 
and  convictions  of  men,  while  all  the  time  supremely  re 
specting  the  decrees  and  judgments  of  Almighty  God. 
Upon  such  a  level,  and  amid  such  values,  did  the  will  of 
Lincoln  trace  out  its  path.  It  was  a  Godlike  energy, 
sovereign,  soberminded,  original,  free. 

But  though  this  freedom  of  Lincoln,  as  it  reigns  through 
this  inaugural,  was  individually  his  own,  and  wrought  out 
into  precise  experience  in  personal  singleness  and  inde 
pendency,  by  no  manner  of  means  was  he  standing  in  this 
scene  in  moral  isolation.  He  was  beset  about  and  wrought 
upon  from  many  sides  by  mighty  moral  energies.  For 
one  thing,  a  vast  Republic  held  him  fast  in  the  bonds  of 
loyal  citizenship.  It  was  a  Republic  composed  of  free 
men,  to  be  sure.  But  those  freemen  were  by  no  means  a 
miscellany  of  mutually  indifferent  and  disconnected  units. 
They  had  formed  a  Union.  That  Union  had  a  definite 
and  inviolable  integrity.  That  corporate  integrity  laid 


34  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

an  unrenounceable  obligation  upon  all  its  membership. 
It  was  the  sacred  respect  for  the  sacred  honor  of  that 
political  bond  that  proved  a  man  a  patriot.  To  assert 
the  freeman's  right  to  cast  aside  those  bonds  proved  a  man 
a  traitor,  and  gendered  unto  bondage.  Here  unfolds  a 
veritable  mesh  of  moral  obligations — obligations  of  com 
pelling  potency.  It  was  precisely  in  defence  and  demon 
stration  of  those  enveloping  claims  that  Lincoln  advocated 
and  prosecuted  a  defensive  but  relentless  war. 

The  South  resented  all  such  claims.  They  were  resolute 
that  national  bonds  should  be  defied,  that  their  authority 
should  be  annulled.  And  this  they  urged  explicitly  in  the 
very  name  of  freedom.  This  defiant  protest  Lincoln's 
opposite  preference  had  to  face.  This  involved  his  mind 
in  the  study  of  a  problem  that  is  never  out  of  date — a 
sM:udy  that  will  test  any  student's  moral  honesty  to  the 
quick.  Lincoln's  championship  of  moral  liberty  had  to 
grapple,  in  the  counter  championship  of  Southern  arms,  a 
type  and  sort  of  freedom  that  he  forever  disowned  for 
himself,  and  that  he  could  never  consent  to  in  any  other 
man.  This  drove  him  into  the  study  of  the  nature  of  a 
human  soul  and  the  nature  of  social  bonds.  This  inquiry 
uncovered  two  foundation  rocks,  laid  deep  by  our  fore 
fathers  beneath  the  fabric  of  our  republic,  supports  to 
human  honor  and  stability  which  no  man  nor  any  con 
federation  of  men  can  undermine  and  overthrow  without 
turning  upside  down  the  fundamental  supports  of  har 
mony  and  honor  among  civilians  that  are  free.  These 
two  foundation  rocks  are  the  divine  design  that  all  men 
should  be  equal  and  free;  and  the  certain  corollary  that 
governments  among  men  derive  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed.  The  equality  of  freemen 
when  they  stand  apart,  and  their  free  consent,  when  they 
join  in  a  political  league — these  are  the  immovable  pillars 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  35 

of  character  and  order  among  intelligent  men.  Upon 
such  foundations  this  government  has  been  placed.  That 
sure  basis  the  South  assailed.  In  the  name  of  freedom 
that  assault  must  be  repulsed.  The  national  environ 
ment,  the  national  integrity,  the  national  honor,  the 
existence  of  the  Nation,  conceived  as  it  was  in  liberty, 
made  all  such  liberty  as  the  South  preferred,  not  a  free 
man's  right,  but  a  sorry  simulation,  a  moral  wrong.  Gov 
ernment  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  was  freedom  to  the 
core,  the  core  of  civic  righteousness.  In  such  a  govern 
ment  popular  and  everlasting  allegiance  was  elemental 
uprightness.  Among  freemen,  the  cornerstone  of  civics 
is  a  plighted  troth  to  liberty. 

Thus  Lincoln  argued.  And  with  him  to  argue  thus  was 
to  obey.  As  thus  conceived,  obedience  to  his  civic  pledge 
went  hand  in  hand  with  liberty.  Enlistment  under  a 
government  and  laws  framed  by  fellow-freemen  was  to 
him  no  limitation  of  his  personal  rights.  Instead  it  in 
volved  and  assured  for  every  bondman  a  full  emancipa 
tion,  and  for  every  freeman  full  title  forever  to  every  un- 
alienable  right.  Such  a  view  was  indeed  ideal,  as  Lin 
coln  soberly  knew;  but  for  that  ideal  every  power  of  his 
kingly  manhood  was  ready  to  struggle  and  suffer  and 
serve.  To  bind  his  hand  to  such  a  league  was  his  free 
choice.  To  live  in  loyalty  to  such  a  bond  was  a  living 
pride  and  joy.  Such  an  agreement  was  to  the  end  of  his 
days  unresented  and  unconstrained. 

But  it  cost  him  dearly.  No  indentured  bonds-man 
ever  wrought  out  sorer  toil.  None  ever  suffered  through 
longer,  heavier,  sadder  days.  It  wore  away  his  life.  The 
war  was  to  his  tender  soul,  as  he  termed  it,  "a  dreadful 
scourge."  But  as  he  interpreted  its  trend,  its  certain 
winnings  outvalued  and  outweighed  its  woe.  It  was 
freely  and  willingly,  not  by  any  irksome  and  alien  coercion, 


36  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

that  he  opened  his  soul  to  all  its  sorrows,  and  poured  out 
all  his  strength  to  direct  and  hasten  its  consummation. 
He  saw  unerringly  that  it  had  to  do  with  government  by 
free  consent,  with  the  tenure  of  a  freeman's  oath,  with  the 
validity  of  a  '.freeman's  right.  And  by  a  preference  that 
in  his  freeman's  breast  was  irrepressible,  he  selected  with 
an  open,  far-ranging  eye  to  take  his  place  in  that  terrific 
conflict  in  the  very  brunt,  that  the  Nation  and  all  the 
world  and  coming  ages  might  see  and  enjoy  its  happy 
issue  in  a  Union  built  and  compacted  indissolubly  upon 
the  inviolable  oaths  and  rights  of  men  who  are  free. 

This  was  Lincoln's  law  of  liberty.  It  secures  to  men 
their  freedom;  but  it  binds  those  freemen  in  a  league. 
Their  civic  life  is  not  a  solitude.  It  is  a  covenant. 

JBut  when  freemen  form  a  league,  their  solemn  oath,  as 
this  inaugural  shows,  embodies  awful  sanctions.  From 
such  a  league  and  covenant,  seven  confederate  parts  were 
affirming  and  defending  their  right  to  secede,  and  that 
by  force  of  arms.  This  forced  freedom  to  a  final  defini 
tion,  and  a  final  test.  What  follows  when  a  Republic 
fails?  What  form  of  civic  order  lies  beyond,  when  a 
league  of  freemen  is  violently  dissolved?  Where  will 
freedom  find  sure  footing,  when  the  fundamental  laws  of 
freemen  are  defied?  On  this  stern  question  Lincoln  fixed 
his  eye.  And  as  his  vision  cleared  and  deepened,  he  grew 
to  see  that  if  freedom  among  men  could  ever  survive,  a 
freeman's  mutual  covenant  must  be  inviolate.  A  free 
man's  compact  must  be  kept,  else  on  all  the  earth  freedom 
could  find  no  resting  place.  If  this  should  ever  be  denied, 
that  denial  must  be  sternly  smitten  to  the  ground.  Thus 
for  the  very  cause  of  freedom,  and  as  a  freeman,  Lincoln 
was  driven  into  war.  He  was  put  where  he  had  no  other 
choice.  He  was  forced  to  fight. 

But  in  that  war  the  havoc  and  disaster  were  mutual. 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  37 

Both  sides  suffered  terribly.  The  conflict  dealt  out  tor 
ture  that  neither  party  could  evade.  It  was  mighty 
ponderings  on  these  conditions  that  wrung  from  Lincoln's 
heart  the  heart  of  this  inaugural,  wherein  he  traces  with  a 
humble,  deep-searching  carefulness  the  cause  of  all  the 
war  to  that  prolonged  infraction  of  the  law  of  liberty  in  the 
lot  of  the  American  slave;  and  the  guilt  of  that  enormous 
sin  to  North  and  South  alike;  and  the  moral  explanation 
of  the  sorrows  of  the  war  to  the  judgments  of  Almighty 
God. 

Herein  he  learned  that  among  freemen  freedom  is  in  no 
sense  arbitrary  and  absolute.  Laws  lie  in  its  very  being. 
Their  presence  is  spontaneous  indeed,  as  is  every  impulse 
of  their  promulgation  and  rule.  But  they  must  be  obeyed. 
If  their  self -framed  mandates  are  disobeyed,  then  freemen 
are  no  longer  free.  If  freemen  dare  to  bind  and  rob  their 
fellows  and  aggrandize  their  own  advantages,  then  the 
yoke  they  bind  on  other  men,  by  a  sanction  no  mortal  can 
escape,  will  be  bound  upon  their  own  necks,  until  their 
false  advantages  are  all  surrendered,  and  the  freedom 
that  is  claimed  by  anyone  is  given  equally  to  every  other 
man.  To  the  fulfillment  and  preservation  of  that  law 
Lincoln  freely  bowed  his  life.  This  is  the  core  of  this 
address.  Thus  Lincoln  illustrates  true  liberty.  In  the 
crucible  of  war  was  his  vision  of  the  worth  of  freedom 
finally  refined.  It  was  through  a  costly  sacrifice  of  peace. 
But  it  was  alone  and  all  for  freedom,  for  freedom  and  for 
nothing  else,  that  his  peace  and  ours  was  sacrificed. 

This  exposition  of  Lincoln's  pure  ideal  of  independent, 
virile  manhood  has  embraced,  in  passing,  a  phase  of  the 
vast  environment  in  which  he  felt  his  manhood  framed, 
that  calls  for  separate  remark — the  relation  of  his  human 
freedom  to  the  rule  of  God.  The  war  is  traced  in  this 
address  to  a  threefold  origin:  it  was  projected  in  the 


38  LINCOLN'S   CARDINAL  TRAITS 

resolution  of  the  South  that  slavery  should  be  given  leave 
to  spread;  it  was  accepted  in  the  decision  of  the  North  that 
the  present  bounds  of  slavery  should  not  be  passed;  the 
whole  affair  was  overturned,  and  the  war  was  over-ruled 
in  the  purpose  of  Almighty  God,  that  North  and  South, 
as  a  single  Nation,  guilty  in  common  for  slavery  as  a 
national  sin,  should  make  full  requital  for  all  its  cruelty. 
In  this  thought  of  Lincoln,  the  conflicting  purposes  of 
the  North  and  the  South,  and  his  own  determination  too, 
were  being  made  to  bow  beneath  the  mightier  dominion 
of  Almighty  God.  In  the  realm  of  human  politics  this 
is  a  rare  and  notable  confession.  And  that  it  was  pub 
lished  beneath  the  open  sky,  at  noon,  before  a  peopled 
Nation's  open  eye,  as  a  thoughtful  explanation  of  his 
inaugural  oath  as  president  of  a  mighty  government  upon 
the  earth,  must  be  conceded  to  mightily  enhance  its  nota 
bility.  It  lacks  but  little  of  rising  to  the  rank  of  prophecy. 
But  equally  notable  with  its  publicity  is  its  conscious, 
free  submissiveness.  Clear  to  discern,  he  is  also  prompt 
to  own  the  over-mastering  rule  of  God.  His  attitude  in 
this  inaugural  is  an  attitude  of  explicit  subordination  to 
a  higher  power.  But  it  is  clear  as  day  that  this  subordina 
tion  is  voluntary.  There  is  no  sign  of  reluctance  or  un 
willingness,  as  though  he  were  being  forced,  not  even 
though  all  expectations  of  his  own  were  being  over-ruled 
in  the  inscrutable  plans  of  God.  This  address  reveals  this 
man  in  a  mood  and  tone  of  complete  submission,  ready 
for  rebuke,  surrendering  all  his  ways  to  God.  This  pos 
ture  of  acquiescence,  in  God's  revolution  of  his  plans,  and 
reconstruction  of  his  hopes,  is  the  factor  to  notice  here,  as 
we  examine  the  actual  operation  of  Lincoln's  will.  Above 
his  private  liberty,  above  his  high  official  authority,  above 
the  great  Republic  in  which  his  own  decisions  merge, 
reigns  the  hidden  hand  of  God.  To  the  power  and  majesty 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  39 

of  that  unseen  sway  he  summons  every  dignity  and  every 
desire  of  his  own  to  render  unreserved  obedience. 

In  seeing  and  saying  this,  however,  one  must  never 
omit  to  observe  and  add  that  Lincoln's  eye  observed  with 
solemn  joy  a  precious  moral  meaning  in  the  divine  omni 
potence.  Heaven's  unexpected  guidance  and  consumma 
tion  of  the  war  were  only  adding  clarity  and  emphasis  to 
the  principle  of  liberty.  It  only  drove  the  demonstration 
home,  and  that  with  irresistible  cogency,  that  human 
bondage  must  be  avenged.  And  so  in  fact  Lincoln's  sol 
emn  reverence  for  the  divine  control  was  a  girdle  con 
firming  the  strength  of  the  fine  jealousy  that  guarded  for 
himself  and  for  all  mankind  the  sacredness  and  the  majes 
ty  of  the  human  will.  Within  the  deeper  deeps  of  his 
own  free  preference  he  coincided  and  co-operated  with  the 
will  of  God.  His  obedience  to  God,  his  allegiance  to  his 
civic  covenant,  and  his  individual,  cherished  preference 
coalesce  ideally;  while  each,  without  any  diversion  or 
loss,  preserves  its  own  integrity. 

Thus  with  life-exhausting,  sacrificial  toil,  with  genuine 
originality,  ever  exemplifying  in  his  chastened  life  all  the 
burden  of  his  thought,  by  a  decisive  choice  between  diver 
gent  paths,  with  the  careful  deliberateness  of  a  full-grown 
man,  with  unconquerable  determination,  gravely  sensi 
ble  of  every  ponderous  consequence,  in  unbroken  and 
intimate  companionship  with  all  his  fellow-men,  with 
vision  sharp  to  detect  and  uncover  every  simulation  and 
counterfeit  of  his  wish,  through  solemn  fellowship  with 
redemptive  sorrows,  bowing  without  repugnance  to  every 
sanction  that  free  equality  enjoins,  and  in  humble  rever 
ence  for  the  all-commanding,  all-subduing  will  of  God, 
Lincoln  here  unfolds  the  central  and  infolded  implications 
in  his  all-consuming  jealousy  to  be  free. 


40  LINCOLN'S   CARDINAL   TRAITS 

His  KINDLINESS — LOVE 

A  GENUINE  and  generous  goodwill  to  other  men  breathes 
warmly  through  this  second  inaugural,  as  the  glowing 
breath  of  life  pervades  the  bodily  frame  of  a  living  child. 
This  manifests  itself,  as  seen  in  his  impassioned  zeal  for 
freedom,  in  a  vivid  consciousness  of  companionship.  He 
felt  his  life  and  destiny  interlaced  inseparably  with  all 
Americans,  nay  with  all  the  world  of  human  kind.  With 
this  widely  expanded  and  ever  expanding  Republic,  he 
felt  himself  in  these  inaugural  scenes  peculiarly  identified. 
In  that  great  pageant  he  was  deeply  sensible  of  holding 
the  central  place.  His  inaugural  oath,  though  his  single, 
individual  act,  announced  his  conscious  purpose  to  be  the 
Nation's  head.  In  that  station  his  person  became  su 
premely  representative.  It  was  for  him  to  incorporate 
nobly,  mightily,  judicially,  the  national  dignity,  authority, 
and  design. 

Many  phases  of  this  profound  coincidence  of  the  life 
of  Lincoln  with  the  Nation's  life  come  into  sight  whenever 
his  life's  career  is  carefully  reviewed.  But  among  all  the 
illustrations  of  his  self-submergence  deep  within  the  over 
flowing  fullness  of  our  national  history,  there  is  one  that 
demonstrates  his  tender  kindliness  beyond  all  possibility 
of  refutation.  This  is  his  profound  participation  with 
the  Nation  in  her  fate  because  of  slavery.  Around  this 
awful  issue  circles  all  the  thought  of  this,  as  of  the  first 
address.  That  this  puissant  co-efficient  of  our  national 
history  was  somehow  the  cause  of  the  existing  war  he 
said  that  all  men  felt.  He  registered  his  own  opinion 
that  all  the  sorrows  of  the  war  were  in  requital  for  that 
sin.  Into  those  sorrows  no  man  entered  more  profoundly 
than  did  Lincoln  himself.  They  sobered  all  his  joy. 
They  solemnized  him  utterly.  It  is  true  few  heard  his 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  41 

groans.  In  his  patience  he  was  mainly  silent.  None 
ever  heard  him  make  complaint.  All  impulse  to  resent 
ment  was  subdued.  But  the  nation's  sorrows  were  on 
his  heart.  Through  all  those  days  he  was  our  confessor, 
self -sacrificed,  sorrow-laden,  faithful  absolutely,  but  un 
complaining.  Upon  his  head  an  angry,  unanimous  South, 
and  many  thousands  in  the  North  dealt  vengeful,  malicious 
blows,  denying  him  all  joy,  crying  out  against  him  ruth 
lessly.  All  this  he  bore,  as  though  he  heard  them  not, 
and  continued  day  and  night  to  seek  the  Nation's  peace. 
With  marvelous  freedom  from  malice  himself,  with  fullness 
of  charity  for  all,  he  taught  a  Nation  how  a  Nation's  sor 
rows  should  be  patiently  borne.  And  yet  through  all  the 
days,  in  all  this  land,  no  man  was  more  purely  innocent 
of  the  Nation's  sin  of  slavery  than  this  same  man.  Here 
is  friendship.  Here  is  neighborly  compassion  written 
large,  This  is  generosity,  untinctured  with  any  selfish 
reservation.  Amid  all  the  sorrows  and  fortunes  of  our 
history  no  sight  is  half  as  pathetic  as  this  deep,  free,  silent 
companionship  of  Lincoln  with  his  Nation's  griefs  in  the 
deepest  period  of  her  affliction.  And  yet  he  almost  seemed 
to  cherish  his  fate.  He  bore  it  all  so  quietly,  and  with 
such  a  steady  heart  and  eye,  that  in  his  seeming  calm  we 
are  unconscious  of  his  pain.  He  gives  no  hint  of  falter 
ing  and  drawing  back.  He  even  strove  repeatedly  to 
lure  the  Nation  to  his  side,  to  enter  into  sacrificial  fellow 
ship  with  the  hapless  South.  But  to  nothing  of  this 
would  the  people  hear. 

This  commanding  fact,  the  moral  mutualness  of  the 
innocent  Lincoln's  sorrows  with  the  sorrows  of  a  guilty 
land,  is  a  primary  factor  in  this  historic  scene.  From 
such  a  moral  complication  momentous  questions  emerge. 
How  can  such  confusion  of  moral  issues  be  ever  justified? 
Why  do  guilty  and  innocent  suffer  and  sorrow  alike?  In 


42  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

such  a  glaring  moral  inequality  ^how  could  Lincoln  him 
self  ever  bring  his  candid  mind  to  honestly  acquiesce? 
Why  should  a  later  generation  suffer  vengeance  for  their 
father's  sins?  Why  the  black  man's  fate?  How  can 
moral  judgments  diverge  so  hopelessly  upon  such  basic 
moral  themes?  If  God's  judgment  is  just,  why  are  his 
judgments  upon  such  inhumanity  so  long  delayed?  How 
about  those  kindred  sufferings  of  those  earlier  days  that 
for  total  generations  were  unavenged?  Questions  such 
as  these  must  have  risen  in  Lincoln's  mind  as  he  drained 
his  bitter  cup.  Such  questions  are  not  to  be  evaded  or 
suppressed.  It  should  rather  be  said  that  Lincoln's  un 
deniable  gentleness  in  enduring,  as  the  Nation's  head, 
and  for  his  country's  sake,  a  Nation's  curse  for  a  national 
sin  forces  just  such  questions  into  sharpest  definition,  and 
focuses  them  insistently  and  unavoidably  before  every 
thoughtful  eye.  They  are  shaped  and  fastened  here 
solely  to  render  aid  in  indicating,  as  they  undeniably  do, 
the  supreme  refinement  of  Lincoln's  friendliness.  He 
held  by  kindly  fellowship  with  his  fellowmen,  even  when 
that  fellowship  involved  his  innocent  life  in  the  moral 
shame  and  pain  of  their  reprobation  and  woe.  Here  is  an 
interchange  of  guilt  and  innocence,  in  Lincoln's  undeniable 
experience,  undeniably  resolved  and  harmonized.  Here  is 
human  kindliness,  triumphant,  transcending  all  debate. 
Around  this  exalted  illustration  of  the  strength  and 
purity  of  Lincoln's  benevolence  cluster  many  statements 
eager  to  be  heard.  His  kindness  showed  in  many  ways, 
but  they  were  all  but  varying,  accordant  forms  of  pure 
neighborliness.  His  mastery  of  all  malice,  his  unfailing 
charity,  the  kindliness  of  his  cherished  hope,  his  com 
panionship  with  others'  sorrow,  his  longings  for  peace  at 
home  and  among  all  men,  his  pity  for  the  bereft,  his 
tenderness  before  our  human  wounds,  his  reluctance  to 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  43 

go  to  war,  his  championship  of  the  oppressed,  his  willing 
ness  to  bear  another's  blame,  his  silence  before  abuse,  his 
mighty  predilections  towards  universal  friendliness,  are  all 
concordant  and  coincident  types  and  forms  of  his  pre 
vailing,  spontaneous  companionship  with  men.  Each 
phase  deserves  elaborate  description.  But  it  is  in  closer 
keeping  with  the  treatment  here  to  name  some  general 
qualities  of  his  kindliness,  qualities  that  are  common  to 
all  its  forms. 

His  friendliness  was  immediate.  When  human  needs 
appealed  for  comfort  and  aid,  it  was  not  his  way  to  send  a 
deputy.  He  appeared  himself.  Here  is  something  noth 
ing  less  than  marvelous.  An  intimate  friend  of  all,  he 
stood  in  conscious  touch  with  all  the  Nation's  citizenship. 
At  first  thought  this  may  seem  to  be  in  consequence  and 
by  means  of  his  eminence  and  office  as  the  people's  presi 
dent.  As  chief  executive  of  the  people's  will,  and  as 
foremost  representative  citizen,  he  stood  for  every  man 
in  that  man's  place;  and  his  universal  friendliness  found 
open  avenues  to  every  individual  citizen's  consciousness. 
Here  is  truth.  But  this  truth  only  partially  meets  this 
case.  The  operations  of  his  benevolence  were  somehow 
independent  of  space  and  time.  His  tours  while  president 
were  short  and  few.  Back  and  forth  between  the  White 
House,  the  war  office,  and  the  soldier's  home  he  wore  a 
historic  path.  It  is  almost  overwhelmingly  sad  to  realize 
how  almost  all  his  movements  while  president  were  within 
the  sorrow-shadowed  walls  and  the  hidden  solitudes  of 
his  official  home.  As  said  before,  he  seemed  to  exist 
apart  from  men,  in  a  pathetic  isolation.  Nevertheless,  it 
is  plain  to  all  that  Lincoln's  uncalculating  generosity 
reached,  like  the  shining  of  the  sun,  to  the  limits  of  the 
land.  It  is  most  surprising  when  one  thinks.  But  when 
one  thinks,  it  is  most  clear  that  there  was  in  Lincoln's 


44  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

kindliness  a  Nation-wide  capacity  for  intimacy.  In  the 
open  genial  presence  of  his  good-will  all  men  feel  they 
have  an  immediate  and  equal  share.  And  this  holds  true 
whether  one  is  near  enough  to  feel  the  warmth  of  his  living 
breath,  or  whether  half  a  continent  intervenes. 

This  fact  forces  into  view  and  consciousness  the  pure 
excellence  of  his  love.  It  was  in  its  nature  deeply  real. 
He  did  in  verity  live  close  to  every  man.  He  wore  no 
distant  air.  He  practised  no  reserve.  He  felt  and  proved 
himself  to  be  the  kin  of  all.  His  pictured  face  and  pub 
lished  speech  were  a  perfect  symbol,  a  convincing  pledge 
to  every  honest  man  of  close  and  equal  partnership.  His 
ways  are  often  said  to  have  been  homely.  But  their 
very  homeliness  was  all  human  and  all  humane.  And  in 
his  presence,  or  in  the  presence  of  any  truthful  impress 
or  echo  of  his  life,  no  honest  nature  but  feels  itself  in 
stantly  at  ease  and  quite  at  home.  This  habitude  in 
him  of  overcoming  distance,  and  absence,  and  all  other 
obstacles  to  his  far-ranging  love,  and  winning  entrance 
eveiy where  into  the  affections  of  all  kindly  men,  is  a 
notable  stamp  upon  the  total  texture  of  his  friendliness. 
He  stood  with  men  in  personal  partnership,  immediate, 
intimate,  real. 

And  in  all  his  intimate  and  immediate  fellowship  with 
men  his  personal  contribution  was  entire.  In  his  co-part 
nership  he  had  no  treasure  too  precious  to  invest.  He 
gave  his  all.  Imposing,  almost  impossible  as  is  the  mean 
ing  of  these  words,  all  mankind  do  recognize,  and  that 
with  wondering  reverence,  that  when  Lincoln  rose  to  take 
the  presidential  oath,  he  held  nothing  back.  In  his  ser 
vice  of  the  Union  he  invested  his  life,  his  honor,  his  hope, 
even  all  he  had.  It  was  little  else  he  had  to  give.  His 
lineage  was  of  the  lowliest.  His  education  was  of  the 
meagerest,  and  wholly  a  by -achievement.  In  social  graces 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  45 

he  was  quite  unversed  and  unadorned.  He  was  no  flat 
terer.  The  fawner's  dialect  he  never  knew.  He  would 
not  boast.  To  beg  he  was  ashamed.  He  was  too  honest 
for  any  knavery.  Pure  integrity  was  his  only  asset.  As 
he  took  his  stand  at  the  presidential  post,  he  stood  with 
out  a  single  decoration,  unsupported,  all  alone.  It  was 
literal  truth  that  when  he  took  his  official  oath  the  only 
bond  he  had  to  furnish  was  his  naked  honor.  But  that 
possession  was  no  counterfeit.  Its  value  did  not  fluctuate. 
It  was  solid  gold.  In  his  honest  rating,  the  plighted  faith 
in  the  words  of  his  official  pledge  was  beyond  all  price. 
As  he  discerned  and  understood  the  crisis  of  his  day,  the 
Nation's  very  being  was  at  mortal  stake.  And  when  in 
that  momentous  hour  she  summoned  him  to  take  the 
presidency,  she  laid  sovereign  requisition  upon  his  total 
being.  And  when  he  obeyed  the  call,  he  invested  all. 
No  reserve  of  his  possession  was  kept  in  hiding  for  his 
refuge  and  reimbursement,  in  case  the  Nation  failed. 
He  ventured  all  he  had,  even  all  his  honor.  And  this 
complete  consignment  by  Lincoln  to  the  Nation's  use  of  all 
his  moral  wealth,  of  all  his  pure  and  priceless  personal 
worth,  was  an  act  of  unalloyed  benignity.  It  was  for  the 
Nation's  welfare  that  he  devoted  himself.  It  was  that 
the  Union  might  be  preserved,  and  that  all  men  might  be 
free,  that  he  plighted  his  integrity. 

This  investment  of  Lincoln's  friendliness  for  the  well- 
being  of  all  the  land,  even  of  all  the  men  therein,  was  not 
alone  immediate,  winning  direct  attachment  to  every 
man;  nor  merely  all-absorbing  on  Lincoln's  part,  impress 
ing  into  kindly  service  every  value  and  every  capacity  of 
his  total  life;  it  also  enshrined  a  deathless  hope.  Lincoln's 
patriotic  devotedness  was  no  venture  of  a  day  or  of  a  de 
cade.  Lincoln's  good-will  looked  far  ahead.  He  had  a 
passion  for  immortality.  His  total  effort  and  aim  in  all 


46  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

his  generous  endeavors  and  hopes,  as  he  served  in  his 
public  life,  can  be  denned  as  a  sovereign  aspiration  that 
our  government  should  be  so  guided  and  chastened  in  all 
its  life  that  the  Union  should  never  be  dissolved.  To  his 
kindly  heart  no  possible  event  seemed  more  appalling 
than  that  this  hope  should  fail.  So  far  as  his  words  re 
veal,  this  central,  sovereign  passion  of  his  glowing  heart 
was  all  but  exclusively  patriotic.  He  apparently  forgot 
himself  in  his  wistful  anxious  hope  that  the  Nation's 
peace  might  long  endure.  His  faith  in  the  Union's  in 
destructibility  may  be  said  to  spring  out  of  his  undying 
continual  love  for  his  fellowman.  Indeed  just  here  seems 
to  be  the  birthplace  of  all  his  prophetic  ponderings  over 
the  final  issues  of  our  civic  life.  The  very  stature  of  the 
government  which  his  ideal  conceived  and  which  he  thank 
fully  saw  that  our  Republic  designed,  was  deemed  by  him 
to  be  copied  from  nothing  other  than  the  divinely  fashioned 
moral  nature  which  he  found  alike  in  himself  and  in  all 
his  fellowmen.  Deep  within  his  friendly  heart  he  cherish 
ed  the  vision  of  a  Republic  of  freemen  leagued  together 
indissolubly  as  mutual  friends.  It  was  to  realize  and 
certify  that  hope  that  he  dedicated  his  life.  And  when  he 
pledged  and  sealed  that  offering,  it  was  with  no  design 
that  the  seal  should  ever  be  broken,  or  the  pledge  be  ever 
recalled.  Here  is  another  primary  quality  of  Lincoln's 
friendliness.  It  was  inwrought  with  personal  durability. 
Grounded  as  was  his  civic  hope  in  the  freedom  and  con 
science  of  Godlike  men,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  con 
sent  that  such  a  hope  should  ever  encounter  defeat  or 
decay.  Deep  and  sure  within  its  essential  nature  were 
the  urgent  promptings  and  the  soaring  promise  of  im 
mortality. 

These    observations    upon    the    immediate    directness, 
the  integral  whole-heartedness,  and  the  deathless  eagerness 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  47 

of  Lincoln's  friendliness,  if  thoughtfully  compared  to 
gether,  reveal  that  these  distinctive  phases  of  his  out 
pouring  good-will  are  in  nature  identically  the  same,  and 
spring  from  an  identical  source.  This  essential  coinci 
dence,  this  mutual  convergence  deserves  attention.  It 
intimates  wherein  the  very  essence  and  being  of  his  neigh 
borly  kindness  consists.  And  in  Lincoln's  life  this  indica 
tion  of  the  precise  whereabouts  and  substance  of  the 
essential  and  innermost  quality  and  being  of  human  kind 
liness  is  certain  and  clear,  as  in  hardly  any  other  man. 
His  benignance  in  his  dealings  with  men  is  of  well-nigh 
unparalleled  openness  and  freedom  from  all  admixture 
and  alloy.  Lincoln's  kindness  embodies  and  conveys 
Lincoln's  self.  In  every  favor  from  him  he  is  in  the  gift. 
In  the  center  of  all  the  friendliness  that  is  characteristic 
of  Lincoln,  Lincoln  himself  stands  erect  and  entire,  offer 
ing  and  commending  in  every  case  his  full-sized,  undivided 
self.  This  is  the  core  and  this  the  circumference,  this  is 
the  sum  and  this  the  substance  of  his  good-will.  It  is  rich 
with  all  his  personal  wealth,  solid  with  all  his  personal 
worth.  In  him  an  act  of  friendship  was  an  inauguration 
of  personal  copartnership.  In  his  good-will  was  all  the 
energy  of  his  life.  In  his  benefactions  he  gave  himself. 
Just  so  with  his  compassions.  With  the  sorrows  of  human 
ity  it  was  his  way  to  enter  into  personal  fellowship.  This 
was  the  form  and  being  of  all  his  generosity.  His  mastery 
over  all  malice  when  facing  a  foe,  his  abounding  charity 
when  judging  a  wrong,  his  hearty  gladness  in  the  presence 
of  human  joy,  his  cordial  ways  in  greeting  friends,  his 
fatherly  affection  for  his  boy,  his  love  for  his  native  land, 
bis  pity  in  presence  of  the  bereft,  his  sadness  at  sight  of 
wounds,  his  readiness  to  share  evenly  with  all  his  Nation 
all  that  guilty  Nation's  painful  discipline — all  this  variety 
and  plenitude  of  ample,  open-hearted  tenderness  towards 


48  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

other  men  was  alike  and  always  the  complete  and  con 
scious  contribution  of  himself.  In  brief,  in  full,  arid 
finally,  Lincoln's  friendliness,  through  all  its  beautiful 
versatility,  was  a  free  and  facile,  a  full  and  total,  per 
sonal  self-devotion.  This  is  the  common  content  giving 
all  its  value  to  all  the  forms  of  his  human  kindliness. 

His  PURENESS — LIFE 

IN  the  exposition  just  foregoing,  the  thought  has  been 
drawn  into  allusions  to  Lincoln's  premonitions  or  aspira 
tions  towards  immortality,  for  the  Union,  if  not  for  him 
self.  This  was  in  the  course  of  an  effort  to  find  the  spring 
head  of  his  kindliness.  And  it  culminated  in  the  suggestion 
that  deep  within  Lincoln's  being  there  was  enshrined  an 
assurance,  however  unconfessed  or  even  half  unconscious, 
of  personal  immortality.  And  that  from  within  this  shrine 
of  living  hope,  common  to  him  with  every  man,  he  drew 
his  inspiration  and  his  very  pattern  of  a  national  Union 
and  a  national  peace  that  would  endure  forever. 

Here  is  something  that  calls  for  examination,  for  in  this 
we  touch  a  radical  quality  of  Lincoln's  moral  being.  This 
eager  craving  after  permanence  was  in  him  an  appetite 
that  could  never  be  fed  or  satisfied  by  any  things  that 
perish.  In  itself  and  in  its  nutriment  there  is  an  irre- 
pealable  call  for  something  indefeasable,  something  utterly 
superior  to  all  fear  of  death,  something  never  amenable 
to  any  form  of  dissolution  or  decay,  something  spiritually 
pure,  and  essentially  kindred  to  the  essential  being  of  a 
deathless  soul. 

The  matter  may  be  approached  to  start  with  by  saying 
some  things  negatively.  Lincoln  was  centrally  in  no 
sense  a  materialist.  He  was  indeed  firmly  sensitive  to 
the  physical  majesties  of  this  continent,  though  in  his 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  49 

day  they  were  hardly  half  disclosed.  He  calculated  with 
carefulness  our  material  capacities  for  expansion  in  power 
and  wealth.  He  foresaw  our  certain  outward  growth 
into  a  puissant  Nation,  the  coveted  and  ample  resort  and 
refuge  and  home  of  hordes  of  men  from  other  lands.  In 
his  own  well-seasoned  and  resourceful  physique  he  felt 
and  knew  the  worth  of  physical  virility.  He  could 
thoughtfully  compute  the  glittering  values,  the  goodly 
financial  revenues,  the  days  and  months  and  total  seasons 
of  physical  idleness  and  delights  that  accrue  to  human 
owners  from  the  unrequited  toil  of  human  slaves.  And 
in  the  current  civil  war  he  completely  understood  that  no 
less  a  concern  than  the  perpetuity  of  the  American  Union 
was  pending  upon  contests  largely  consisting  of  encounters 
of  physical  prowess,  of  tests  of  muscular  endurance  and 
strength. 

But  not  in  calculations  such  as  these  did  his  thoughtful 
studies  of  human  welfare  take  ultimate  resort,  or  find  final 
rest.  His  conception  of  the  ideal  state,  of  the  ideal  citizen, 
of  the  ideal  life,  was  not  constructed  or  inspired  from  car 
nal  elements.  He  noted  with  life-long  sadness  the  sordid 
baseness  inseparably  attending  the  fact  of  owning  or 
being  a  slave.  He  deeply  saw  that  those  battles  in  the 
Wilderness  were  no  mere  conflicts  of  beasts.  And  never 
could  he  imagine  or  allow  that  his  personal  weight,  and 
force,  and  worth  were  ratable  by  gymnastic  tests.  It  was 
not  upon  things  like  these  that  Lincoln's  attention  and 
hope  were  fixed,  when  his  hopes  and  plans  for  our  pros 
perity  took  form.  To  the  whole  world  of  his  material 
environment  he  was  marvelously  indifferent.  On  every 
perusal  of  his  life  one  grieves  at  the  story  of  his  poverty, 
and  the  sad  infrequency  and  meagerness  in  his  daily  life 
of  the  pleasures  and  recreations  which  are  for  the  comfort 
and  happiness  of  men  in  material  things.  But  in  this  he 


50  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

seems  as  though  unconscious  of  any  disappointment.  For 
himself  as  for  the  Nation,  and  for  the  Nation  as  for  him 
self,  his  satisfaction  and  confidence  were  not  born  and  fed 
of  things  that  perish  in  their  use.  Luxury  in  food  or 
attire,  however  toothsome  or  attractive  to  other  natures, 
stirred  but  the  feeblest  hankerings,  if  any  at  all,  in  him. 
Towards  sensualism  of  any  sort,  whether  gluttony, 
drunkenness  or  lust,  his  sound  and  temperate  manliness 
did  not  incline.  And  in  his  estimate  of  personal  character 
his  eye  and  respect  did  not  rest  in  outer  attitudes,  on 
printed,  age-long  codes  of  manner.  He  was  no  slave  of 
stately  ceremonies,  or  artificial  etiquette.  Nor  in  religion 
did  he  bind  his  tongue  to  creeds  however  hoary,  nor  to 
rituals  however  august.  He  swore  not  by  the  oaths  of 
any  sect,  however  ancient  and  renowned.  Neither  in  this 
mountain  nor  in  that  did  he  worship  God. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  and  now  to  speak  affirmatively, 
Lincoln  lived  no  penury-stricken  life.  The  resources 
within  his  personality  were  well-nigh  incalculable.  Few 
men  in  all  our  national  catalogue  have  been  endowed  by 
God  with  so  sterling  and  abundant  interior  wealth.  And 
of  all  American  patriotic  benefactors  few  indeed  have  left 
in  their  single  individual  name  and  right  such  priceless 
legacies  to  their  native  land.  What  is  life?  What  is 
human  life?  Wherein,  completely  and  precisely  wherein, 
is  man  distinguishable  from  the  beast?  For  answer, 
study  Lincoln  and  see.  In  the  full  development  of  such 
a  study  many  massive  verities  will  unfold.  But  the  fea 
ture  in  Lincoln's  manhood,  which  this  chapter  is  set  apart 
to  designate  and  clarify,  is  the  simple  purity,  the  elemental 
spirituality  of  all  his  elemental  traits.  His  dominant 
sentiments,  his  primary  convictions,  his  main  and  all- 
mastering  decisions  were  never  born  to  die.  They  were 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  51 

instinct  with  life,  with  life  indeed,  a  life  never  failing,  ever 
more  abundant  and  free. 

This  interior  vitality,  this  unalloyed  and  undecaying 
purity  may  be  described  one  way  as  a  real  idealism.  But 
in  ascribing  idealism  to  Lincoln,  it  needs  to  be  said  at  once 
that  Lincoln's  idealism,  real  and  glorious  as  it  must  surely 
be  confessed  to  be,  was  transparently  and  unvaryingly 
practical.  In  one  way  it  may  be  defined  as  hope.  A 
waiting  hope  was  a  standard  characteristic  of  Lincoln's 
attitude.  His  sorrowful  eye  held  fast  to  things  as  yet 
unrealizable.  It  is  impressive  to  see  how  often  and  how 
fondly  he  mentioned  the  future,  the  "vast  future,"  as  he 
termed  it,  of  our  American  career.  The  secret  of  the  beau 
ty  and  of  the  power  of  some  of  his  loftiest  and  most  spon 
taneous  rhetoric  is  due  to  just  this  solemn  eagerness 
towards  the  coming  days.  As  one  comes  to  study  more 
intently  into  the  outlay  of  his  heroic  strength,  his  struggle 
and  toil  are  seen  to  be  leashed  about  his  consuming  wish 
that  the  Nation  in  its  undivided  might  could  be  unified 
about  the  speedy  fulfillment  of  his  prophetic  aims.  He 
never  forgot  the  mighty  lesson,  nor  lost  the  living  inspira 
tion  of  his  own  advancement  from  humblest  station  of 
ignorance  and  toiling  poverty  to  the  presidency.  That 
transformation  he  loved  to  humbly  hold  before  the  atten 
tion  of  his  fellow  Americans,  as  a  pattern  of  what  might 
anywhere  occur  again.  He  loved  to  linger  upon  the 
possibilities  of  upward  movement  in  the  ranks  of  all 
laboring  men.  Large  place  and  honorable  position  were 
given  to  this  arousing  theme  in  his  first  annual  message  to 
Congress.  This  general  topic — the  far-set,  soaring  possi 
bilities  of  human  betterment — held  constant  and  com 
manding  eminence  in  the  ranging  measure  of  his  eagle- 
searching  thought.  For  the  Nation,  and  for  its  every 
inhabitant,  he  was  a  true  idealist. 


52  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

But  Lincoln's  idealism,  again  be  it  said,  was  no  wild 
indulgence  of  a  vagrant  and  untrained  imagination.  It 
was  utterly  sober-minded.  It  took  its  form  and  found  its 
force  in  the  center  of  his  sanest  thoughtfulness.  The 
terms  in  which  its  description  has  just  been  illustratively 
traced  show  it  to  be  perfectly  rational,  and  even  matter- 
of-fact.  Lincoln's  idealism  was  nothing  else  but  a  heed 
ful  interpretation  of  the  proper  destiny  of  man.  It  was  a 
reflection  in  terms  of  carefulest  thought,  albeit  also  in 
the  guise  of  ardent  hope,  of  the  essential  lineaments  in 
the  nature  of  man.  And  no  human  portrait  by  any 
artist  was  ever  truer  to  fact,  while  yet  tinged  with 
fancy,  pure  and  free.  In  all  his  picturing  of  things 
yet  to  be,  but  not  yet  in  hand,  his  eye  was  fastened 
with  an  anatomist's  intentness  upon  the  actual  human 
nature  imperishably  present  in  every  man.  Nothing  that 
Lincoln's  idealism  ever  proposed  ever  diverged  from  the 
bounds  of  the  original  fiat  creating  all  men  equal  and  free. 
That  undeniable  initial  verity,  itself  the  keystone  of  our 
national  Constitution  and  Bill  of  Rights,  supplied  to 
Lincoln's  hope  its  total  and  only  inspiration.  In  those 
ancient  and  elemental  realities,  realities  that  deeply  under 
lie  and  long  outlast  all  the  cults  and  customs  and  centu 
ries  which  human  thought  is  so  prone  to  differentiate  and 
divide,  Lincoln  detected  solid  foundations  and  ample  war 
rant  for  age-long,  undissolving  expectations.  In  every 
human  face  there  are  outlines  that  are  forever  indelible. 
These  unfailing  lineaments  Lincoln  had  the  eye  to  see. 
And  what  is  vastly  more,  he  had  the  courage  and  the  hon 
esty  to  adopt  them  as  the  pattern  of  the  platform,  and  to 
voice  them  as  the  notes  of  the  battle-peal  of  his  statesman 
ship.  And  this  he  did  right  wittingly,  knowing  assuredly 
that  therein  his  vision  had  caught  the  gleam  of  things 
eternal;  that  therein  he  had  made  discovery  that  man, 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  53 

even  the  humblest  of  his  race,  could  claim  to  be,  as  he 
phrased  it  to  a  company  of  blacks,  "kindred  to  the  great 
God  who  made  him."  This  amounts  to  saying  that 
Lincoln's  statesmanship  may  be  completely  and  precisely 
defined  as  the  studied  and  deliberate  exploitation,  upon 
the  field  of  politics,  of  those  forces,  central  and  common  in 
all  mankind,  that  are  Godlike,  immortal,  spiritual. 

Here  we  reach  a  definition  that  outlines  with  close  pre 
cision  a  trait  of  Lincoln's  full-formed  character  that  held 
a  primary  place  in  winning  for  Lincoln  his  immortal  re 
nown.  He  attached  himself  to  things  themselves  immor 
tal.  His  ideal  hope  had  no  admixture  of  clay,  nor  even  of 
gold.  He  made  no  composition  or  compromise  with  any 
thing  that  dies.  His  supreme  desire  was  of  a  nature  never 
to  decay.  It  was  pure  with  the  deathless  purity  of  the 
human  soul.  To  this  pure  principle,  eternal  loyalty  to 
the  immortal  dignity  of  man,  he  signed  and  sealed  his  soul's 
allegiance  with  bonds  that  even  death  could  never  relax. 
Such  statements  describe  a  primary  co-efficient  in  Lin 
coln's  ethical  life.  Abjuring  the  unnumbered  allurements 
of  the  material  world,  allurements  wrhose  fascinations 
unfailingly  fade,  and  reposing  his  confidence  wholly  in 
treasures  that  time  and  use  only  brighten  and  refine, 
Lincoln  reveals  in  the  realm  of  ethics  the  singular  excel 
lence  of  an  ideal  that  can  kindle  in  an  immortal  man  an 
immortal  hope.  Purging  every  sort  of  baseness  out  of 
the  central  life,  and  enthroning  an  all-refining  pureness 
in  the  sovereign  desires  and  visions  and  designs,  he  has 
inaugurated  in  the  field  of  civics  an  idealism  that  will 
honor  every  man,  fit  actual  life,  and  endure  forever. 
Personal  pureness,  this  pervades  the  life  of  Lincoln  as 
crystalline  beauty  pervades  a  block  of  marble. 

This  refining  trait  in  Lincoln,  this  inner  hunger  for  his 
living  soul's  true  nutriment,  this  thirst  for  the  pure, 


54  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

perennial  springs,  finds  signal  illustration  in  the  closing 
sentence  of  this  last  inaugural,  where  he  pleads  with  all 
his  fellow-citizens  to  so  conduct  all  civic  interests  as  to 
secure  among  ourselves  and  with  all  Nations  a  "lasting 
peace."  That  craving  after  permanence  in  civic  har 
mony  betokens  an  impulse  towards  immortality;  and 
rests  down,  as  the  entire  inaugural  explains,  upon  that 
only  basis  of  enduring  civic  quietude,  an  honest  and  uni 
versal  recognition  and  respect  for  those  indelible  and 
universal  lineaments  of  personal  dignity  which  the  Creator 
of  men  has  traced  upon  every  human  soul — lineaments 
from  which  the  obscuring  dross  of  centuries  was  being 
purged  in  the  Providential  fires  of  an  awful  war.  Just 
this  was  the  meaning  of  the  war,  as  Lincoln  understood 
its  work.  That  earth-born  sordidness  which  marked  all 
slaves  as  common  chattels,  was  being  burnt  out  of  our 
national  life,  as  our  basest  national  sin.  Thenceforth, 
forevermore,  it  was  Lincoln's  living  hope  that  all  mankind 
might  peacefully  agree  to  supremely  cherish  and  mutually 
respect  those  human  values  that  human  unfriendliness, 
and  centuries  of  contempt,  however  deeply  they  may 
obscure,  can  never  obliterate.  Upon  such  enduring  foun 
dations,  and  upon  such  foundations  alone,  Lincoln  clearly 
saw,  could  human  peace  endure. 

And  upon  this  same  foundation  rests  his  first  inaugural 
as  well.  In  all  those  months  of  special  study,  ensuing 
between  his  election  in  November  of  1860  and  his  inaugura 
tion  in  March  in  1861,  and  for  an  ample  seven  years  before, 
Lincoln  was  feeling  after  civic  perpetuity.  And  when  he 
stood  before  the  Nation  to  publish  his  first  inaugural 
address,  his  supreme  concern  was  fixed  upon  the  threatened 
and  impending  ruin  of  the  Republic.  He  there  faced  a 
menacing  South,  irreconcilable,  and  resolute  for  dissolu 
tion  or  blood.  That  outcrying  situation  brought  final 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  55 

issues  near.  Must  the  Union  perish?  Could  the  Union 
endure?  Civic  dissolution  or  civic  perpetuity — this  was 
the  immediate,  the  unrelieved,  the  ominous  alternative. 
In  the  fiery  heat  of  civic  hate,  flaming  into  civil  war,  Lin 
coln  had  to  seek  for  civic  principles  that  hate  could  not 
subvert,  nor  the  fires  of  war  consume;  principles  too  strong 
to  admit  defeat,  too  pure  to  be  dissolved. 

Never  did  a  statesman  bend  over  a  graver  task,  nor 
with  a  more  honest  and  patient  heart,  nor  with  a  mind 
more  divinely  fashioned  and  furnished  to  comprehend  and 
penetrate  the  actual  case  in  hand.  As  in  a  chemist's 
alembic,  he  fused  and  tried  our  Constitution  and  all  our 
history.  Into  that  first  inaugural  he  incorporated  the 
issues  of  his  thought.  And  this  was  its  simple,  sole  re 
sult: — Slavery  is  "the  only  substantial  dispute."  With 
the  people  is  "ultimate  justice."  With  God  is  "ultimate 
truth."  We  are  not  "enemies."  We  are  "friends." 
In  this  supreme  dispute  let  us  confer  and  legislate  as 
friends,  and  then  as  friends  live  together  in  an  amity  that 
shall  be  perpetual.  This  is  the  uncompounded  essence  of 
his  first  inaugural,  as  of  all  his  political  philosophy.  In 
universal  freedom,  by  mutual  persuasion,  and  in  even 
friendliness,  let  our  Union  forever  endure.  Here  again  is 
a  statesman's  publication  and  heroic  defense  of  a  pure, 
immortal  hope,  voiced  in  an  appeal  and  upheld  by  argu 
ments  as  spiritual  and  pure  as  the  inmost  being  and  utmost 
destiny  of  the  living  souls  of  men. 

No  study  of  the  transcendent  momentum  in  Lincoln's 
life  of  spiritual  realities  can  fairly  overlook  his  speech  in 
Peori?,,  October  16,  1854.  It  is,  as  he  said  at  the  time, 
"substantially"  a  repetition  of  an  address  at  Springfield, 
twelve  days  before.  It  "made  Lincoln  a  power  in  national 
politics. "  It  was  the  commanding  beginning  of  his  com 
manding  career.  That  year,  1854,  began  the  convulsion 


56  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

which  made  him  president,  involved  the  war,  and  ended 
in  his  violent  death.  As  matters  stood  on  New  Year  of 
1854,  slavery  was,  by  act  of  Congress  in  the  Missouri 
Compromise  of  1820,  thenceforth  forbidden  to  spread 
anywhere  in  United  States  territory  north  of  the  southern 
boundary  of  Missouri.  In  the  early  half  of  1854  Senator 
Douglas  drove  through  Congress  a  bill,  creating  the 
territory  of  Nebraska,  which  declared  the  Compromise 
prohibition  of  1820  "inoperative  and  void. "  Thenceforth 
slavery  might  spread  any\\here.  This  is  the  "repeal" 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

That  "repeal"  brought  Lincoln  to  his  feet.  And  from 
the  day  of  that  Peoria  speech  Lincoln  was,  to  seeing  eyes, 
a  man  of  destiny.  For,  not  for  that  day,  nor  for  that 
century,  nor  for  this  continent  alone  did  Lincoln  frame 
and  join  that  speech.  Let  any  logical  mind  attempt  a 
logical  synthesis  of  that  address,  marking  well  what  affirma 
tions  are  supreme.  Not  out  of  conditions  that  vary  with 
the  latitudes,  nor  out  of  opinions  that  change  as  knowledge 
improves,  and  not  from  sentiments  that  bloom  and  fade 
as  do  the  passing  flowers,  was  that  address  constructed. 
It  handles  things  eternal.  Its  central  propositions  out 
wear  the  centuries.  Its  conclusions  are  compounded 
from  stuff  that  is  indestructible.  And  the  piers  upon 
which  they  rest  are  as  steadfast  as  the  everlasting  hills. 
Freedom,  union,  perpetuity  were  its  only  positive  themes. 
Let  us  "save  the  Union"  was  its  central  call;  and  "so" 
save  it  as  to  "make  and  keep  it  forever  worth  the  saving" 
• — so  save  it  "that  the  succeeding  generations  of  free, 
happy  people,  the  world  over,  shall  rise  up  and  call  us 
blessed  to  the  latest  generations."  The  perpetual  Union 
of  freemen — this  was  his  one  pure  hope.  Of  this  freedom 
slavery  was  a  "total  violation."  Such  a  Union  the 
principle  of  secession  made  forever  impossible.  And  in  the 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  57 

continual  presence  of  tyranny,  and  under  ever  impending 
threats  of  disruption,  perpetuity  in  peace  was  an  impossi 
bility.  Liberty,  equality,  loyalty — only  upon  these  en 
during  verities  could  self-government  ever  be  built,  or 
ever  abide.  Here  is  stability.  Here  is  harmony.  Here 
are  truths  "self-evident."  Against  cruelty,  disloyalty, 
and  pride  these  eternal  principles  are  in  "eternal  antago 
nism.  "  And  when  the  two  collide,  "shocks  and  throes  and 
convulsions  must  continually  follow."  Against  human 
slavery,  and  all  that  human  slavery  entails,  humanity 
instinctively  and  universally  revolts.  It  is  condemned 
by  human  righteousness  and  human  sympathy  alike. 
"Repeal  the  Missouri  Compromise,  repeal  all  compromises, 
repeal  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  repeal  all  past 
history,  you  still  cannot  repeal  human  nature." 

Thus  Lincoln  bound  together  the  arguments  of  this 
appeal.  The  irrepealability  of  the  human  sympathies  in 
the  nature  of  all  men,  the  undeniable  humanity  of  the 
black,  self-government  built  upon  the  creative  fiat  of 
freedom  and  equality  for  all — upon  these  enduring  pro 
positions  a  Nation  could  be  built  whose  resources  either 
to  eliminate  all  evils,  pacify  all  convulsions,  and  resolve 
all  debates,  or  to  achieve  a  lasting  progress,  dignity  and 
peace,  would  be  inexhaustible.  Thus,  at  the  very  start, 
his  eye  pierced  through  the  political  turmoil  of  his  time, 
fixing  in  the  central  place  before  the  Nation's  gaze  those 
"great  and  durable"  elements  which  "no  statesman  can 
safely  disregard." 

Plainly  notable  in  all  this  is  that  powerful  and  habitual 
proclivity  in  Lincoln  to  find  out  and  publish  abroad  those 
civic  propositions  and  principles  that  are  inwrought  with 
perpetuity.  He  was  straining  and  toiling  towrards  a 
triumph  that  time  could  never  reverse.  Foundations 
that  were  sure  to  shift,  or  disintegrate,  or  sink  away,  he 


58  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

was  resolute  to  overturn,  and  clear  away.  He  chose  and 
strove  to  toil  and  speak  for  the  immortal  part  in  man, 
for  ages  yet  to  come,  and  for  the  immediate  justice  of 
Almighty  God.  And  so  he  fashioned  forth  a  programme 
that,  like  the  programme  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  circum 
vented  death. 

His  CONSTANCY — TRUTH 

THIS  second  inaugural  contains  a  fine  example  of  free 
and  reasoned  reliability.  It  is  in  fact,  in  its  total  stature, 
a  stately  exhibit  of  deliberate  steadfastness.  Let  this 
short  document  be  read,  meanwhile  remembering  that 
other  inaugural  document,  and  not  forgetting  all  the 
unspeakable  strain  and  struggles  of  those  four  intervening 
years.  The  man  who  spoke  in  1861,  and  the  man  who 
speaks  now  again  in  1865,  stands  forth  in  the  heart  of  those 
bewildering  confusions  of  our  political  life,  a  living  em 
bodiment  of  civic  constancy.  In  his  person  national 
firmness  stands  enshrined.  In  those  ripe  convictions,  in 
those  cool  and  poised  determinations,  in  those  ardent, 
prophetic  desires — steadfast,  consistent,  and  sure — are 
traceable  the  rock-like  foundations  of  our  confederate 
Republic.  In  those  inaugurals  stands  a  monument  not 
liable  soon  to  crumble  away.  But  within  that  monument 
insuring  its  durability,  rests  as  within  and  upon  a  stead 
fast  throne,  Lincoln's  everlasting  fidelity. 

To  win  clear  vision  of  this  fine  trait,  let  one  read  again 
this  second  inaugural,  and  locate  truly  the  center  of  gravity 
of  its  second  paragraph.  There  Lincoln  is  tracing  in 
broad,  plain  strokes  the  origin  and  on-coming  of  the  war. 
In  the  center  of  his  steady  thought  the  interest  centrally 
at  stake  was  the  Union.  On  the  one  hand  he  recalls  his 
own  address  at  his  first  inauguration,  "devoted,"  as  he 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  59 

says,  "altogether  to  saving  the  Union  without  war."  On 
the  other  hand,  he  recalls  "insurgent  agents"  seeking  to 
destroy  it  without  war.  War  was  deprecated  and  dreaded 
by  both  parties.  But  one  would  make  war  rather  than 
let  the  Nation  survive.  And  the  other  would  accept  war 
rather  than  let  the  Nation  perish.  "And  the  war  came. " 
As  a  register  of  Lincoln's  capacity  for  free,  intelligent 
stability,  no  passing  glance  can  in  any  sense  exhaust  or 
apprehend  the  depth  and  sweep  and  energy  of  those  last 
four  words.  When  loyalty  to  the  Union  was  the  issue 
and  interest  at  stake,  Lincoln  would  "accept  war." 
"And  the  war  came." 

When  Lincoln  voiced  those  four  words,  his  eye  was 
looking  back  through  four  dreadful,  bloody  years — years, 
whether  hi  prospect  or  in  reminiscence,  fit  to  make  any 
human  heart  recoil.  But  as  he  surveys  those  scenes  of 
hate  and  carnage  and  desolation,  retracing  and  reckoning 
again  the  sum  of  their  awful  sorrow  and  cost,  and  rehearses 
again  his  resolution  to  "accept  the  war,"  it  is  without  a 
shadow  or  a  hint  of  wavering  or  remorse.  In  fact  he  is 
recalling  that  fateful  day  of  four  years  before  with  an 
eye  to  review  and  vindicate  that  fateful  resolve.  At  the 
end  of  those  eventful  and  sorrow-laden  years,  he  is  as 
steady  as  at  their  start.  Not  by  the  breadth  of  a  hair 
have  his  footing  and  purpose,  his  judgment  and  endeavor 
been  made  to  swerve.  Then  as  now,  now  as  then,  his 
loyalty  is  absolute.  And  in  that  sturdy  loyalty  of  that 
lone  man  a  seeing  eye  discerns  nothing  less  than  the  un 
bending  majesty  of  a  Nation's  self-respect.  It  is  the 
Nation's  sacred  honor  that  he  has  in  sacred  charge.  In 
him  the  integrity  of  the  Nation  at  large  finds  a  champion 
and  a  living  voice.  In  his  firm-set  decision  the  Nation's 
destiny  takes  shape.  In  those  short  pregnant  words  the 
proud  consistency  of  our  total  national  career,  and  his 


60  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

superb  reliability,  become,  instantly  and  for  all  time, 
freely,  nobly,  and  completely  identified.  This  is  not  to 
say  that  in  the  teeming  history  of  those  eventful  years 
Lincoln's  mind  and  will  and  sentiments  had  stood  in 
stolid  immobility.  He  freely  concedes  that  the  years 
have  brought  him  lessons  he  had  never  foreseen.  And 
his  central  attitude  in  this  second  scene  is  a  reverent  in 
quiry  into  the  ways  of  Him  whose  purposes  transcend  all 
human  wisdom,  and  require  full  centuries  to  complete. 
But  strong  and  clear  within  his  reverent  and  lowly  ac 
ceptance  of  divine  rebukes,  stands  unbent  and  unchanged 
his  steadfast,  invincible  pledge  to  reveal,  on  his  own  and 
on  his  Nation's  behalf,  the  sovereign  grandeur  of  civic 
reliability. 

In  his  first  message  to  Congress  this  integral  trait  of  his 
personal  and  official  life  finds  majestic  and  most  definite 
explication.  It  is  the  passage  explaining  to  Congress,  in 
precise  and  minute  recital,  just  how  the  war  began.  It 
deals  with  those  ominous  events  in  Charleston  harbor, 
centering  about  heroic  Major  Anderson,  a  federal  officer, 
and  within  Fort  Sumter,  a  federal  fort.  That  assault 
upon  a  national  garrison  by  Confederate  guns  was  no 
haphazard  event.  At  just  that  moment,  and  in  just 
that  spot  the  national  crisis  became  acute.  Upon  that 
spot,  and  upon  those  events  Lincoln's  eye  was  fixed  with  a 
physician's  anxiety.  There  he  knew  he  could  feel  the 
pulse  of  the  resentment  and  resolution  of  the  South.  Day 
and  night  he  held  his  finger  upon  its  feverish  beat.  And 
as  the  fever  rose,  he  marked  with  exactest  attentiveness 
its  registration  of  one  condition  of  the  Southern  heart: — 
Was  that  heart  so  hot  with  civic  hate  that,  when  every 
lesser  issue  was  set  aside,  and  the  only  issue  under  review 
was  the  right  of  the  Republic  to  stand  by  its  officers  and 
its  flag,  then  those  Southern  leaders  would  fire  upon  those 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  61 

officials  in  a  federal  fort,  and  pull  down  that  flag  upon 
federal  soil?  If  in  a  federal  fort  the  major  in  command, 
and  his  uniformed  men,  while  making  no  aggression  nor 
voicing  any  threat,  but  acting  only  as  peaceful  exponents 
of  the  Nation's  authority,  and  being  in  exigent  need  of 
food,  were  to  be  visited  by  a  national  transport  bearing 
nought  but  bread,  upon  such  a  ship,  upon  such  a  mission, 
would  seceding  soldiers  open  fire?  If  they  would,  and  if 
that  onslaught  passed  without  rebuke,  then  that  Nation's 
federal  integrity  was  dissolved.  Such  was  the  unmixed 
issue,  and  so  sharply  edged  was  its  final  and  decisive 
definition  under  Lincoln's  hand.  And  on  his  part  there 
was  here  no  accident.  With  foresight,  and  by  careful 
design  Lincoln  "took  pains"  to  make  the  problem  plain. 
With  impressive  and  ideal  carefulness  he  guided  the  action 
of  his  own  heart  to  its  final  resolution,  and  predetermined 
the  final  verdict  of  the  world. 

In  the  last  supreme  alternative,  when  government 
agents  stand  in  need  of  food,  and  citizens  who  repudiate 
all  loyalty  fire  upon  government  transports  freighted  only 
with  bread,  what  shall  a  government  do?  This  was  the 
naked  question  that  Lincoln  faced,  when  he  decided  to 
accept  and  prosecute  the  war.  Upon  this  one  plain  ques 
tion,  and  upon  his  one  convinced  determination  he  massed 
and  compacted  his  first  Congressional  address.  Right  well 
he  understood  its  point,  its  gravity,  and  its  range.  And 
surpassing  well  was  he  fitted  to  be  the  man  to  frame  and 
demonstrate  the  true  reply.  In  all  the  land  no  finer,  firmer 
exemplar  of  elemental  constancy  could  ever  have  been 
found  to  guide  and  cheer  the  Nation's  course  in  this  ex- 
tremest  test  of  elemental  self-respect.  Let  those  words  be 
written  and  read  again.  It  was  a  test  of  national  self-re 
spect,  elemental  and  supreme.  It  was  a  question  that  con 
cerned,  as  Lincoln  saw  and  said,  "the  whole  family  of 


62  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TBAITS 

man . "  "  Government  of  the  people,  by  the  same  people  * ' — 
can  or  cannot  such  a  government  "maintain  its  own  in 
tegrity  against  its  own  domestic  foes?"  Can  it  "maintain 
its  own  integrity?"  Can  it  master  "its  own  domestic 
foes?"  Can  men  who  assume  their  self-control  be  trusted 
to  maintain  their  self-respect?  Here  is  a  problem  that 
is  in  verity  elemental  and  supreme.  What,  in  very  deed 
and  in  solid  fact,  what  is  civic  reliability?  Where,  among 
all  the  governments  by  men,  where  can  steadfastness, 
civic  steadfastness  be  found?  Nowhere,  Lincoln  had  the 
eyes  to  see;  nowhere, but  in  the  civic  constancy  of  men  at 
once  governing  and  governed.  Only  thus  and  only  there, 
only  so  and  only  here,  in  this  heaven-favored  land,  did 
Lincoln  see,  can  any  government  of  men  by  men  find 
fundamental  base  and  final  form  that  shall  be  consistent, 
stable,  and  real.  This  is  government  indeed.  Here  is 
elemental,  civic  verity.  A  community  held  in  common 
self-control  upon  the  basis  of  common  self-respect — such 
a  union  alone  has  constancy.  This  is  the  sublime  and 
radical  civic  truth  that  Lincoln  forged  out  upon  his  stead 
fast  heart,  as  he  bent  with  mighty  ponderings  over  those 
scenes  in  Charleston  harbor,  and  reviewed  and  expounded 
their  pregnant  implications  in  his  initial  message  to  Con 
gress  in  1861. 

In  many  ways  this  constancy  of  Lincoln  rewards  atten 
tive  thought.  For  one  thing,  it  was  radiant  with  intelli 
gence.  Indeed  in  him  the  two  became  identified.  As  thus 
conceived,  it  shows  as  pure  and  clear  consistency.  His 
fully  tried  reliability  was  the  well-poised  balance  of  a  mind 
long-schooled  in  the  art  of  steadiest  deliberation.  When 
Lincoln  held  immutably  fast,  it  was  due  to  his  invincible 
faith  that  the  conviction  to  which  he  clung  involved  abid 
ing  truth.  This  quality  tempered  all  his  firmness.  Just 
here  one  finds  the  genesis  and  motive  of  all  his  skilled 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  63 

invention  of  reasoned,  pleading  speech.  Lincoln's  pre 
vailing  power  of  urgent  argument  roots  in  the  deep  per 
sistency  of  his  convinced  belief.  It  was  because  of  an 
impassioned  confidence,  an  assurance  that  was  vibrant 
with  a  note  of  triumph,  that  his  grasp  of  any  ruling  pur 
pose  was  so  unwaveringly  firm.  This  was  his  mood  and 
attitude  in  all  the  major  contentions  of  his  life.  To  the 
central  tenets  that  those  contentions  involved  be  held 
with  all  the  firmness  of  the  rooted  hills.  Touching  those 
primary  principles  in  his  character  and  politics  his  mind 
and  faith  seem  to  have  attained  an  absolute  confirmation. 
And  from  those  settled  positions  he  could  never  be  moved . 
Constancy  in  him  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the 
energetic  affirmation  of  intellectual  rectitude. 

His  steadfastness,  thus,  was  a  mental  poise.  It  can  be 
defined  as  ripened  judgment,  a  conclusion  of  thought, 
safeguarded  on  every  side  by  a  discernment  not  easily 
confused,  by  a  penetration  not  easy  to  escape.  This 
involved  a  wonderful  flexibility.  While  steadfast  unto 
the  grade  of  immutability,  where  honor  was  involved,  no 
student  of  his  ways  could  call  him  obstinate.  While  firm 
and  strong  enough  to  hold  the  Nation  to  her  predestined 
course  upon  an  even  keel,  he  held  her  helm  with  a  gentle, 
pliant  grasp.  Being  in  every  mental  trait  inherently 
honest  and  deliberate,  he  could  at  once  be  resolute  and 
free. 

This  blend  within  his  being  of  thoughtfulness  and  de 
termination,  of  openness  and  immutability,  this  candid, 
conscientious,  mental  poise,  this  Godlike  apprehension 
of  the  larger  equilibrium,  qualified  him  peculiarly  to  inter 
pret  the  major  movements  of  his  time,  to  trace  in  the  deep, 
prevailing  sentiments  of  the  human  soul  the  chart  of  our 
national  destiny. 

Here  is  in  Lincoln  something  wonderful.     Among  the 


64  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

millions  of  his  fellowmen  he  counts  but  one.  But  in  the 
range  and  grasp  of  his  thought,  in  the  eager  passion  of 
his  heart,  in  the  controlling  power  of  his  commanding  will, 
he  comprehends  them  all.  Stable  and  heedful  at  once, 
he  could  challenge  unanswerably  every  man's  esteem. 
His  symbol  is  the  firm,  benignant  oak,  the  sheltering, 
abiding  hills.  Thus  he  stood  to  help  and  hold,  to  serve 
and  rule  among  his  fellowmen.  Thus  he  wrought  co 
herence  into  our  great  career.  Thus  he  linked  together 
those  mighty  political  events  with  a  logic  which  succeed 
ing  times  have  proved  powerless  to  refute,  but  strong  and 
glad  to  confirm.  He  had  marvelous  capacity  to  divine. 
With  him  to  reason  was  to  illuminate.  Things  bewilder- 
in  gly  obscure,  within  his  thought  and  speech  grew  plain. 
He  was  our  prime  interpreter.  He  explained  the  Nation 
to  itself.  But  in  every  such  elucidation  the  Nation  was 
made  to  co-operate.  His  instinctive,  habitual  attitude 
toward  other  men  was  that  of  a  conferee.  He  was  sensi 
tively  open  to  complaints  and  appeals.  Delegations  and 
private  supplicants  always  found  him  courteous.  This 
courtesy  was  never  formal.  To  a  degree  altogether  note 
worthy  the  words  of  other  men  found  entrance  into  the 
counselings  of  his  mind.  He  was  not  merely  accessible. 
He  was  impressible,  sensitive,  quick  to  appreciate  and 
honor  the  sentiments  of  another  man.  With  the  earnest 
plea  of  balanced,  honest  argument,  hailing  from  whatever 
source,  he  was  facile  to  correspond.  His  judgments  and 
decisions  were  amenable  to  estimates  wholly  novel  to  him. 
Indeed,  to  an  almost  astonishing  degree  his  major  move 
ments  were  commensurate  with  the  progress  and  pace 
of  the  national  events  that  environed  his  life.  In  some 
of  his  mightiest  accomplishments  he  seemed  to  do  little 
more  than  register  the  conclusions  of  the  national  mind. 
All  this  is  to  say  that  Lincoln's  constancy  was  poise, 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  65 

not  obstinacy;  a  well-reflected  equilibrium,  not  a  stiff 
rigidity.  All  his  steadiness  was  studied.  Never  can  it 
be  said  of  Lincoln  that  his  verdicts  were  snap  judgments. 
On  the  contrary,  with  him  deliberation  and  delay  were  so 
habitual  and  so  excessively  indulged,  while  pondering 
some  massive,  political  perplexity,  that  the  patience  of 
some  of  our  greatest  statesmen  repeatedly  broke  down, 
and  he  was  charged  repeatedly  with  criminal,  and  all  but 
wanton  indifference,  inertia,  and  neglect.  But  never 
was  sorer  libel.  Through  it  all  he  was  only  too  intent. 
Through  it  all  his  eye  refused  to  sleep,  while  his  steady 
and  steadying  mind  pursued  the  vexing  task,  until  its 
permanent  solution  stood  clear.  And  then,  with  his  eye 
steadily  single  to  the  guiding  hand  of  God,  to  the  Nation's 
immortal  weal,  and  to  his  own  unsurrendered  integrity, 
he  would  publish  and  fulfill  his  studied  and  sturdy  resolve. 
Upon  the  basis  of  these  internal  mental  conquests  did  all 
his  firmness  rest.  Hence  his  life-long  evenness  and  free 
dom  from  fluctuation. 

But  this  challenges  still  further  study.  Given  this 
notable  blending  in  his  mental  habits  of  independent 
stalwartness  and  amenability  to  others'  views,  what  is 
the  inmost  secret  and  explanation  of  his  undeniable  con 
sistency?  It  lay  in  his  human  sincerity.  His  affinity 
with  his  neighbor  was  a  reality.  The  Nation's  deepest 
concerns  were  as  deeply  his  own.  Hence  his  ultimate 
convictions,  though  ripening  in  a  single  decade,  proved 
to  be  in  deep  and  enduring  agreement  with  the  ultimate 
convictions  of  the  Nation  at  large,  though  requiring  a 
full  century  to  mature.  The  sentiments  that  were  essen 
tially  his  own  were  seen,  when  openly  published  upon  his 
lips,  to  be  the  sentiments  essential  and  common  to  his 
fellowmen.  His  personal  aspiration  was  a  national  goal. 
His  personal  character  was  a  national  type.  Truly  rep- 


66  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

resentative,  he  was  at  the  same  time  as  truly  unique. 
Always  facing  towards  other  men,  he  always  stood  erect. 

This  was  Lincoln's  constancy.  It  was  not  the  stubborn 
ness  of  an  arbitrary  will,  although  his  will  had  regal  energy. 
It  was  not  a  frigid  intellectualism,  although  in  mental 
penetration  he  could  not  be  surpassed.  It  was  not  a  tide 
of  swelling  enthusiasm,  although  the  supreme  emotion  of 
his  heart  was  the  passion  of  an  ideal  patriotism.  His 
commanding  constancy,  potent  to  compose  a  Nation's 
turbulence,  was  but  the  outer  stature  of  his  typical  interior 
integrity.  It  was  the  open  assertion  and  attestation  of 
his  personal  self-respect. 

Thus  Lincoln's  convictions  and  verdicts  were  unfailingly 
his  own.  And  thus  those  verdicts  and  convictions  had 
continental  breadth.  Dealing  with  a  Nation's  destiny, 
he  came  to  be  clothed  with  a  Nation's  majesty.  In  his 
own  great  heart,  as  in  a  Nation's  crucible,  he  assembled 
and  resolved  the  Nation's  complexities;  and  in  his  own 
pure  desire,  as  in  a  Nation's  purified  hopes,  he  defined 
and  described  our  national  goal.  Of  all  things  narrow 
and  peculiar,  of  all  things  partisan  and  sectional,  he 
purged  his  eye,  until  with  malice  toward  none,  with  charity 
for  all,  with  reverence  towards  God,  he  could  see  the  total 
vastness  of  the  things  with  which  he  had  to  deal. 

Here  is  a  loyalty  worthy  of  the  name — the  plighted 
troth  of  one  in  whom  the  Nation's  noblest  hopes  stand 
forth  already  realized,  assured,  secure.  This  defines  and 
describes  the  force  at  play  in  this  last  inaugural.  In  the 
volume  of  those  words  Lincoln's  message  and  Lincoln's 
manhood  were  identical.  Its  utterance  was  the  voice  of 
his  self-respect.  Herein  Lincoln  the  patriot  and  Lincoln 
the  man  are  one.  Here  was  Lincoln's  standard.  His 
search  for  verity  was  a  study  of  himself — of  himself  as 
true  kindred  of  God  and  of  his  fellowmen.  This  is  the 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  67 

core  of  Lincoln's  honesty.  This  is  the  key  to  Lincoln's 
constancy.  This  is  the  secret  of  Lincoln's  authority. 
This  was  the  goal  of  Lincoln's  quest  for  verity.  This  was 
for  Lincoln  the  one  reality.  As  child  of  the  one  great 
God,  as  closest  kin  of  every  man,  he  is  our  model  champion 
and  exemplar  of  the  one  abiding  truth — personal  self- 
respect.  That  this  should  be  held  unperverted  and  pre 
served  intact  was  in  the  thought  of  Lincoln  the  primal 
equity,  the  very  substance  of  a  man's  integrity. 


His  HUMILITY — WORTH 

THE  name  of  Lincoln  is  linked  inseparably  with  the  lot 
of  the  slave.  That  the  fortune  of  the  lowly  might  be  im 
proved  was  the  supreme  enterprise  of  his  life.  As  con 
ceived  by  him,  that  enterprise  concerned  all  men.  Not 
for  black  men  alone,  and  not  alone  for  men  in  literal  and 
evident  bonds,  was  this,  his  major  interest,  engaged.  Quite 
as  keenly,  nay  even  more,  was  his  heart  concerned  for 
his  closer  kinsmen  of  Saxon  blood,  who  never  felt  the 
slave  driver's  lash.  But  even  here  his  prevailing  inclina 
tion  was  a  kindly  solicitude  for  people  of  meager  comfort, 
culture  and  liberty.  Towards  men  whose  fortune  was 
adverse,  and  from  whom  more  favored  ones  were  prone  to 
turn  their  face,  his  heart  was  prone  to  be  compassionate. 
His  very  instincts  seemed  inclined  to  make  the  poor  his 
intimates.  And  when  he  stood  among  the  lowly,  he 
never  showed  a  sign  that  he  had  entered  the  shadow  of 
any  shame.  Richly  dowered  with  nobility  himself,  him 
self  superior  to  every  fortune,  incapable  of  subjugation 
by  any  fate,  a  master  owned  among  the  mightiest,  the 
dominant  function  of  his  life  was  ministration.  This  was 
his  ambition.  And  it  was  sovereign.  His  towering 


68  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

aspiration  was  that  the  needy  be  relieved,  that  poor  men 
might  have  means,  that  bondmen  might  be  free. 

This  was  a  soaring,  imperial  wish.  But  it  sent  him 
where  men  were  most  down-trodden  and  overborne.  It 
forced  his  name  and  reputation  to  become  identified  with 
the  gross  and  low  condition  of  the  rudest,  most  untutored 
mortals  of  our  land,  the  humble  Afro-American  slave. 
This  lowly  fellowship  he  never  attempted  to  disguise  nor 
consented  to  disclaim.  He  rather  seemed  to  welcome 
whatever  burden  or  reproach  it  might  seem  to  involve. 
Before  and  against  the  white  man  who  held  the  whip, 
beside  and  befriending  the  black  who  felt  its  lash,  he  chose 
to  take,  and  persisted  to  keep,  his  stand.  Many  a  time 
was  this  co-partnership  flung  in  Lincoln's  face  with  sting 
ing  words  as  a  mongrel,  shameful  thing — with  most  vigor 
ous  persistence  by  Douglas  in  their  famous  debates.  But 
it  was  not  in  Lincoln  to  desert  and  disown  the  poor,  nor 
yet  to  apologize,  nor  to  retort,  nor  even  to  reply.  As 
champion  and  companion  of  the  despised  and  embondaged 
victims  of  the  white  man's  greed  and  contempt,  Lincoln 
stands  by  the  negro,  as  full  of  resoluteness,  and  as  free 
from  shame,  as  though  defending  his  own  home. 

Here  is  genuine  humility,  not  an  attitude  assumed, 
but  a  virtue  inwrought.  That  this  rare  and  Christian 
grace  was  planted  deep  in  Lincoln's  heart,  and  pervaded 
the  total  fullness  of  his  life,  may  be  argued  from  the  very 
texture  of  his  last  inaugural.  Upon  just  this  point  that 
document  deserves  minute  attention.  From  the  vantage 
ground  of  April  4,  1865,  and  from  the  point  of  view  of 
slavery,  that  address  is  a  profound  and  most  command 
ing  interpretation  of  the  philosophy  and  phenomena  of 
our  American  life.  The  war,  God's  Providence,  and 
slavery — they  are  its  sovereign  themes.  God's  Providence 
shaping  into  national  discipline  the  tragedy  of  the  war; 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  69 

slavery  "somehow"  its  deepest,  fateful  "cause:"     there 
are  thoughts  for  thoughtful  men,  who  may  wish  to  under 
stand  the  meaning  of  our  national  life.     The  point  to 
notice  here  is  to  observe  how  in  Lincoln's  mind  in  1865, 
the  course,  and  curse,  and  fate  of  slavery  connect.     It  is 
nothing  less  than  a  profound  elucidation  of  outstanding 
American  events.     It  intimates  impressively  how  Lincoln's 
mind  had  brooded  and  pondered  over  the  lot  of  the  African 
slave.     He  had  reckoned  all  the  value  of  their  unrequited 
toil.     The  marks  of  their  bruises  and  wounds  were  seared 
upon  his  soul.     And  of  all  the  meaning  of  that  sore  humilia 
tion,  in  terms  of  our  national  destiny  and  of  the  Divine 
dominion,  he  became  the  supreme  and  sympathetic  ex 
positor.     In  his  unfolding  of  that  meaning  was  infolded 
the  master  motive  of  his  life.     Under  the  hand  of  God 
he  was  having  bitter  but  submissive  share  in  setting  for 
ever  right  the  cruel,  age-long  wrongs  of  the  African  slave. 
That  such  sentiments  should  take  such  shape  at  such  a 
time  is  signal  demonstration  that  they  were  the  central 
sentiments  of  his  heart.     He  was  highly  designated  to  a 
humble  task;  and  he  knew  no  higher  honor  than  to  keep 
close  friendship  with  the  poor,  until  his  high  commission 
stood  complete.     And  to  this  close  affiliation  of  lowliest 
lives  with  the  loftiest  aims  and  issues  of  his  great  career, 
he  devotes  well-nigh  the  whole  of  his  inaugural  address 
as  our  Nation's  president  to  expound,  therein  betraying 
no  slightest  sign  that  he  sees  in  that  alliance  the  slightest 
incongruity.     In  that  defense  and  championship  of  the 
rights  that  were  elemental  to  men,  though  the  most  de 
spised,  he  saw  his  highest  dignity  as  president.     And  to 
that  lowly  aim  he  shaped  and  pledged  his  policy,  his  party, 
his  fortune,  and  his  fame. 

In  truth  this  affinity  of  Lincoln  with  his  neighbor  in 
need  was  the  very  fruitage  of  the  fortune  of  his  life.     He 


70  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

was  fitted  and  predestined  for  it  by  his  birth.  His  station 
was  of  the  lowliest.  His  setting-up  was  pathetically  scant. 
All  his  discipline  was  cruelly  stern.  In  ease  and  plenty  he 
had  no  share.  Of  sweets  and  luxury  he  had  no  taste. 
Born  of  parents  pitifully  poor,  nurtured  in  painful  penury, 
poorly  sheltered,  scantily  clad,  accustomed  to  neglect, 
intimate  with  want,  trained  to  disappointment,  toiling  in 
untamed  scenes  against  hard  odds  with  rudest  tools,  the 
kindred  and  daily  familiar  of  unassuming  men,  denied  the 
commonest  aids  to  personal  refinement,  he  was  to  the 
atmosphere  and  temperament  of  genuine,  undisguised 
humility  native  born,  and  fully  bred.  From  such  a 
hopeless  start,  in  such  a  hostile  environment,  he  made  his 
way  alone.  It  can  be  said  with  almost  literal  truth  that 
he  never  had  any  help.  His  only  friend  was  his  modest, 
resolute  heart.  His  winnings  were  all  by  wrestling — and 
the  struggle  never  relaxed.  When  every  antagonist  had 
been  met  and  overthrown,  and  his  gaunt  stature  stood  in 
the  Nation's  arena  alone  and  undefeated,  then  upon  that 
unbent  but  unpretending  form  his  Nation  and  his  Nation's 
God  laid  a  burden,  such  as  no  man  in  all  our  history  had 
ever  borne.  When  beneath  that  great  final  task  he  meekly 
bowed,  its  superhuman  responsibility  and  weight  were  all- 
sufficient  to  crush  forever  all  vain-glorious  pride,  if  in  his 
tried  heart  any  pride  had  ever  entered,  and  having  entered 
had  still  remained.  Before  the  majesty  of  his  commission, 
and  amid  the  inscrutable  perplexities  of  each  unparalleled 
day,  he  must  always  be  fain,  even  though  never  forced, 
to  walk  humbly  among  his  people,  and  before  his  God. 
From  birth  to  death,  by  fortune  and  by  Providence,  as 
though  by  overmastering  fate,  he  was  fashioned  for  hu 
mility. 

From  all  these  grounds  he  was  predisposed  to  modesty. 
Over  against  the  vastness  of  his  task,  facing  daily  all  its 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  71 

formidable  difficulties,  and  sensible  evermore  of  his  infinite 
insufficiency,  the  posture  of  his  spirit  and  the  tone  of  his 
daily  speech  unfailingly  betokened  a  moderate  estimate  of 
his  personal  significance.  The  overspreading  majesty  of 
the  work  to  which  he  set  his  hand,  always  towering  vividly 
before  his  thought,  kept  vividly  active  the  consciousness 
that  he  was  quite  incompetent  to  accomplish  aught,  except 
the  God  of  Nations  tendered  daily  help. 

As  thus  inclined  and  thus  disposed  in  body  and  in  mind, 
he  became  a  man  of  prayer.  That  he  should  often  fall 
upon  his  knees  was  but  the  consequence  of  his  daily  dis 
covery  that  his  burdens  and  his  strength  were  widely 
incommensurate. 

Many  times  those  supplications  seemed  as  though 
unheard.  The  heavens  gave  no  sign.  Then  malice  raged 
against  him.  But  then  his  unsurrendered  faith  in  God, 
his  reverence  for  his  task,  and  his  sobering  estimate  of 
himself  would  show  as  meekness.  It  was  not  his  way  to 
retaliate  or  rail.  In  darkness,  before  delay,  and  beneath 
abuse,  he  bore  and  suffered  long  without  complaint.  In 
this  pathetic  quietness  his  humility  becomes  heroic. 

This  bent  towards  lowliness,  tempered  through  and 
through,  as  it  was,  with  his  clear  intelligence,  saved  him 
from  vaunting  and  all  vanity.  There  was  habitually  in 
his  posture  a  grave  solidity.  This  often  seemed  like  care 
fulness  and  caution.  But  it  was  born  of  modesty.  If 
there  was  ever  a  time  when  ever  a  man  might  be  suffered 
to  boast,  the  date  of  this  second  inaugural  was  the  time,  and 
the  author  of  that  inaugural  was  the  man.  The  hour  of 
that  address  marked  the  opening  of  Lincoln's  second 
presidential  term.  It  was  the  crowning  vindication  of  his 
presidential  policy.  After  four  years  of  war  the  national 
poll  at  the  last  electoral  vote  had  shown  the  North  stronger 
in  men  than  when  the  war  began.  The  status  of  the  South 


72  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

was  desperate.  But  five  weeks  lay  between  him  and  the 
surrender  of  Lee.  Lincoln  was  not  lacking  in  foresight, 
nor  in  careful  calculation.  His  skill  therein  was  pre 
eminent.  Wary,  discerning,  resolute,  his  assurance  of 
ultimate  victory  no  doubt  firm  and  clear,  no  breath  of 
boasting  was  given  vent.  Instead,  with  almost  painful 
reserve,  he  modestly  said,  "With  high  hope  for  the  future, 
no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured."  Lincoln  was 
one  of  those  rarest  of  men,  invincible  in  resolution,  at  the 
same  time  invincible  in  reserve. 

This  inner  mood  of  modesty  showed  in  all  his  outer 
furnishing.  It  was  not  his  way  to  publish  his  distinction. 
For  him  to  signalize  his  primacy  by  any  decoration  would 
be  an  incongruity.  In  any  group  of  men  where  precedence 
was  emphasized  he  wTas  ill  at  ease.  Any  attempt  by  him 
to  designate  his  official  elevation  by  some  gilded  ornament 
or  plume  would  have  been  grotesque.  His  eyes  were  not 
lofty  nor  his  heart  haughty.  His  feet  were  for  the  furrow. 
His  hands  were  for  the  axe.  His  lips  were  for  friendly 
salutation  of  all  the  people  on  the  street.  Any  outer 
token,  intended  to  mark  him  for  separation  or  any  superi 
ority,  would  have  excited  nothing  but  sorrow  in  him. 
Fabrics  however  costly  and  rare,  jewels  however  brilliant 
and  pure,  designed  and  disposed  for  distinction  and  dis 
play,  awakening  envy  and  unrest  quite  as  much  as  admira 
tion  and  delight,  were  not  for  him.  Plain  man  among  the 
lowliest,  true  nobleman  among  the  noblest,  he  wore  all  his 
honors  in  uttermost  innocence  of  all  parade. 

Nor  were  the  features  of  Lincoln  ever  intended  to  be 
employed  as  instruments  of  scorn.  Into  the  hellish  minis 
try  of  curling  contempt  those  gracious  lips  could  never  be 
impressed.  His  heart  was  far  too  kindly;  and  that  were 
safeguard  enough.  But  his  unalloyed  humility  was  far 
too  potent  to  ever  encourage  or  permit  in  him  any  indul- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  73 

gence  of  disdain.  Truly  lowly  himself,  it  was  not  in  him 
to  coldly  despise  any  of  his  fellowmen.  Just  here  his 
humility  displayed  its  sterling  honesty.  And  just  here 
his  honor  and  his  glory  blend.  Here  is  his  sure  title  to 
nobility — a  title  that  neither  time  nor  eternity  can  ever 
tarnish  or  bedim.  By  every  right  is  this  nobility  his. 
By  his  earthly  fortune,  as  by  a  hard,  relentless  fate,  his  lot 
was  cast  among  the  poor;  and  by  that  same  appointment 
the  lot  of  all  earth's  poor  has  gained  perennial  dignity. 
But  he  graced  those  ranks  also  as  a  volunteer.  By  his 
own  consent,  with  sovereign  free  selection,  he  elected  to 
sustain  and  overcome  all  the  impediments  of  the  station 
of  his  birth,  and  so  to  demonstrate  the  full  capacity  of  the 
humblest  human  life  for  high  endeavor  and  desire.  Thus 
he  was  alike  and  at  once  filled  with  a  deep  compassion, 
and  free  from  high  contempt.  Here  lies  the  firm  founda 
tion  of  his  proud  renown.  This  is  the  true  birthmark  of 
his  nobility.  He  was  above  the  baseness  and  the  mean 
ness  of  scorning  any  brother  man. 

And  so  he  avoided  arrogance.  It  was  not  the  way  of 
Lincoln  to  forever  reiterate,  if  even  to  allow,  his  own 
importance.  He  was  acutely  sensitive,  to  the  meaning 
and  worth  of  an  honorable  renown.  Especially  was  his 
cool,  gray  eye  awake  to  the  future  issues  of  the  pregnant 
deeds  of  his  teeming  times.  But  therein  his  eager  con 
cern  was  a  patriot's  anxiety — an  anxiety  in  which  he 
mingled  his  fortune  and  fame  with  the  destiny  of  his 
native  land.  Therein  the  jealousy  of  his  desire  for  the 
national  welfare  burned  away,  as  in  sacrificial  fires  and 
upon  a  sacred  altar,  all  ambitions  for  himself.  At  any 
cost  to  others,  or  through  any  other  man's  neglect,  it  was 
not  in  the  heart  of  Lincoln  to  demand  and  heap  together 
honors  or  advantages  for  himself.  Well  might  he  be 
justified,  if  ever  such  a  course  were  fair,  in  claiming  for 


74  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

himself  exceptional  rewards.  Chief  executive  of  a  great 
Republic,  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  North,  assured  of  the  major  momentum  of  military 
success,  in  immediate  reach  of  vast  and  ever  increasing 
resources,  whether  for  war  or  peace,  chosen  the  second 
time  to  be  the  Nation's  head,  charged  the  second  time  to 
consummate  the  Nation's  perpetual  unity — surely  he  had 
ample  guaranty  for  imputing  to  his  own  sole  hand,  in  a 
supreme  degree,  mighty  prowess,  imposing  achievements, 
a  vast  and  spreading  authority  and  power.  At  such  a  time 
and  amid  such  surroundings,  a  generous  measure  of  self- 
aggrandizement  would  have  seemed  quite  warranted  and 
well  sustained.  But  never  was  a  mighty  commander 
freer  from  that  uncomely  fault.  The  mention  of  victory 
makes  him  strangely  unmindful  of  himself.  The  thought 
of  his  vast  authority  makes  him  the  lowliest  in  the  land. 
Lincoln  was  not  arrogant.  He  made  no  effort  after  ag 
gregated  honors,  however  deserved,  much  less  after  honors 
unearned.  In  particular  he  showed  no  inclination  to 
appropriate  another's  fame.  For  one  thing,  he  knew  too 
well  the  awful  cost  of  magistracy.  The  right  to  be  com 
mander-in-chief  of  a  Nation's  resources  and  arms,  so 
coveted  a  right  in  aspiring  men,  became  transmuted  in 
the  cup  which  Lincoln  drank  into  a  terrible,  an  almost  im 
possible  responsibility.  Nor  was  it  of  his  nature  to  sub 
tract  from  other  men  for  his  own  increase.  At  the  price 
of  a  brother's  freedom,  or  happiness,  or  life,  the  gaining 
of  ease,  or  wealth,  or  joy  of  any  sort  for  himself  would  be 
far  too  dear.  In  the  soul  of  Lincoln  extortion  could  find 
no  soil.  His  mien  among  men  was  that  of  indulgent 
ministry,  not  of  exacting  mastery.  With  the  lower  level 
and  the  lesser  meed  he  could  be  well  content.  Morbid 
jealousy  for  his  own  acclaim,  hungry  greed  for  another's 
reward,  satisfaction  in  plaudits  that  were  undeserved,  or 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  75 

comfort  from  robbery  or  extortion  of  any  sort  were  senti 
ments  for  which  the  refined  and  genuine  modesty  of 
Lincoln  had  no  appetite  or  taste.  The  honors  that  sur 
rounded  and  invested  him  were  up-springing,  spontaneous 
and  free;  in  no  least  measure  accumulated,  artificial  or  en 
forced. 

The  native  purity  of  Lincoln's  lowliness  shows  best  in 
his  reverence  for  God.  He  lived  in  a  daily  consciousness 
of  Providence.  As  a  statesman  he  was  thoroughly  a  man 
of  God,  full  of  a  patriot's  adoring  and  acquiescent  thank 
fulness,  as  he  watched  and  studied  the  wonderful  unfolding 
of  God's  just  and  kindly  government  of  this  most  favored 
land.  This  mood  of  humble  reverence  was  deeply  wrought. 
It  was  of  the  texture  of  his  character.  It  was  not  a  vesture 
or  a  posture,  a  gesture  or  a  phrase,  assumed  here  and 
discarded  there,  and  often  counterfeit.  It  was  essential, 
like  his  integrity,  pervading  and  indeed  controlling  all 
his  responsible  life.  And  it  was  wholly  undisguised.  In 
his  most  formal  public  documents — papers  in  which  states 
men  as  a  rule  make  scant  allusion  to  Deity — Lincoln's 
allusions  to  God  are  their  most  imposing  feature.  Be 
yond  all  contradiction,  Lincoln  enacted  his  public  responsi 
bilities  in  the  fear  of  God.  This  was  the  beginning  of  his 
wisdom.  Just  this  is  the  secret  of  the  sanity  of  this  last 
inaugural.  And  it  is  the  secret  of  its  immortal  beauty. 
And  it  is  the  girdle  of  its  strength.  In  framing  its  central 
argument,  and  thereby  steadying  the  Nation's  heart  in 
the  convulsions  of  war,  he  was  expounding  the  hidden  ways 
of  God.  There  grew  a  mighty  paragraph.  It  reads 
smoothly  now.  But  when  it  passed  through  Lincoln's 
lips,  it  was  the  issue  of  a  hard-pent  agony.  When  he 
voiced  those  words  he  stood  before  an  altar,  and  made 
confession,  like  a  very  priest,  for  both  North  and  South. 
All  the  land  had  behaved  with  unbecoming  confidence. 


76  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

All  alike  were  under  discipline.  God  was  in  dominion. 
Even  in  their  prayers  both  North  and  South  had  been 
contending  against  the  Lord.  The  prayers  of  both  could 
not  be  answered.  That  of  neither  had  been  answered 
fully.  The  Almighty  had  his  own  purposes.  The  ex 
pectations  of  all  had  gone  astray.  The  contending  strug 
gles  of  either  side,  despite  their  contending  prayers,  were 
being  turned  by  the  judgments  of  God  against  them  both 
into  a  terrible  national  chastisement.  So  Lincoln  dis 
cerned,  and  so  he  humbly,  vicariously  confessed.  But 
beneath  this  high  dominion  his  heart  too  had  been  bowed 
down,  and  overwhelmed,  and  chastened  sore.  Repeatedly 
his  counsels  had  been  overturned,  and  his  expectations 
had  been  reversed;  and  that  too,  as  he  devoutly  believed, 
by  the  over-ruling  purposes  of  God.  Hence,  as  in  this 
inaugural  scene  he  faced  the  future,  though  he  was  head 
of  a  puissant  people,  he  behaved  like  a  little  child.  In  a 
chastened  sense  of  the  mystery  and  authority  of  the  over 
ruling  designs  of  Almighty  God,  he  forebore  to  boast. 
And  then  he  said  in  rhythmic  words  of  almost  prophetic 
majesty,  and  in  the  attire  of  all  but  sacrificial  humility: 
"Fondly  do  we  hope — fervently  do  we  pray — that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if 
God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the 
bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil 
shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with 
the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword, 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be 
said,  'The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether.'  ' 

This  is  indeed  in  prophetic  strain.  But  he  forbears  to 
prophesy.  He  longed  with  sacrificial  eagerness  for  nation 
al  prosperity,  in  lasting  freedom  and  unison  and  happi 
ness.  As  he  renewed  his  official  pledge  to  preserve,  pro- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  77 

tect,  and  defend  the  world's  greatest  charter  of  equality 
and  freedom  for  all  mankind,  his  heart  and  hope  held 
high  and  firm.  But  his  total  being  was  subdued.  God 
had  crossed  his  path.  The  long-drawn  war  was  God's 
rebuke.  The  Nation  had  gone  sadly  astray.  The  Al 
mighty  had  taken  her  waywardness  in  hand.  His  pur 
poses  were  in  control.  And  He  was  supreme.  And  His 
ways  were  unrevealed.  Lincoln  stood  to  his  task  un 
flinchingly,  ready  either  for  sorrow  or  relief,  ready  either 
for  death  or  life,  as  the  Most  High  might  appoint. 

Here  is  statesmanship  indeed.  But  it  is  altogether 
unique.  A  mighty  Nation's  executive  head,  discerning, 
devoted,  and  devout,  holding  in  his  steady  hand  the 
charge  of  a  Nation's  destiny,  pledging  in  the  Nation's 
name  to  lay  upon  the  altar,  if  need  be  for  the  Nation's 
honor,  the  Nation's  life,  and  there  before  the  altar  waiting 
humbly  upon  God.  Many  a  theme  of  profoundest  pur 
port  opens  instantly  into  view.  Just  now  our  eye  is  fixed 
upon  its  illustration  of  humility. 

On  the  one  hand,  and  in  the  first  place,  its  exhibition 
of  the  dignity  of  pure  manhood  is  sublime.  In  this  in 
augural  scene,  beneath  the  awful  stress  of  a  Nation. in  war, 
upon  the  basis  of  the  pledged  covenant  of  the  free,  in 
vincible  faith  that  a  free  Republic  can  sustain  and  ful 
fill  all  its  solemn  responsibility,  and  with  unquenchable 
hope  in  the  vast  and  unseen  future  of  his  land,  Lincoln 
took  his  stand,  and  held  his  ground,  and  put  on  record 
before  God  and  all  the  world  his  reverent  and  resolute 
oath.  Here  is  manhood,  noble,  majestic,  decisive,  free — 
a  manhood  that  embraces  the  worth,  voices  the  hope,  and 
confronts  with  open  breast  the  destiny  of  the  race. 

But  in  this  same  scene  these  mighty  energies  pause. 
Lincoln  consciously  faces  God.  For  himself  and  for  the 
Nation  he  makes  humble  acknowledgment  that  the  Lord 


78  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

is  Almighty  and  Most  High.  And  to  God's  full  sover 
eignty  he  yields  spontaneous  consent.  With  lowliest 
submission  and  confession  he  concedes  and  declares  that 
all  his  rebukes  and  all  his  rule  are  in  righteousness. 

Here  is  a  place  where  any  man  may  properly  pause. 
Here  the  orbit  of  our  proudest  being  strikes  its  verge. 
Here  God  and  manhood  meet.  Here  human  power  faints. 
Here  human  resolution  halts.  Here  human  foresight 
dims.  Here  human  wisdom  becomes  a  void.  Here  all 
our  pride  becomes  perforce  humility;  and  all  our  counsel- 
ings  merge  in  faith.  Here  human  grandeur  touches  its 
outer  rim. 

But  here,  too,  human  eyes  awaken.  Here  human  aspira 
tions  rise.  Here  human  wisdom  becomes  newly  informed. 
Here  human  forecasts  brighten  into  hope.  Here  human 
strength  revives.  Here  human  purpose  tightens.  Here 
hi  reverence  human  wisdom  begins.  Here  in  human 
lowliness  appears  a  Godlike  dignity.  Here  our  human 
stature  shows  its  noblest.  Lincoln  is  at  the  utmost  bound 
of  his  knowledge,  and  his  liberty ;  and  yet  he  is  displaying 
just  here  a  discernment  and  a  decision  of  the  most  exalted 
type — a  discernment,  however,  whose  insight  is  a  vision 
of  faith,  and  a  decision  whose  resolve  is  an  exercise  of 
trust.  In  this  scene  statesmanship  is  transmuted  into 
religion,  undefiled  and  pure.  Man  in  his  loftiest  hope 
and  uttermost  need,  and  God  in  his  transcendent  royalty 
of  equity  and  goodwill  meet  face  to  face,  and  stand  in 
open,  free  and  friendly  covenant.  Here  is  at  once  a  por 
trait  of  true  humility,  and  the  acme  of  high  nobility. 
Here  in  childlike  trust  and  childlike  faith  the  wisdom  and 
the  freedom  of  man  attain  their  goal.  Here  statesman 
ship  and  reverence,  wisdom  and  trust,  freedom  and  ac 
quiescence,  dignity  and  lowliness  harmonize  and  inter- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  79 

blend.     And  in  the  unison  either  one  remains  uncom- 
pounded  and  pure. 

Here  many  questions  press  to  be  resolved.  This  signal 
scene  in  Lincoln's  career — what  has  it  to  say  about  the 
inner  nature  of  man?  What  about  the  nature  of  God? 
What  about  the  nature  of  our  human  insight  into  the 
essential  qualities  of  things?  What  about  the  relation  of 
will  to  thought?  What  about  the  sovereignty  of  charac 
ter?  When  human  character  touches  the  limit  of  human 
life,  is  it  facing  night  or  day?  These  are  ultimate  in 
quiries.  And  they  are  immediate.  For  answer  to  these 
inquiries,  let  Lincoln  and  Hegel  meet.  And  let  the  Na 
tions  listen  to  their  replies;  and  so  discern  what  problems 
clear,  where  dignity  and  lowliness  convene.  For  here  is  a 
shining  scene,  where  any  man  may  see  that  in  a  lowly 
heart  wisdom  and  nobility  may  sit  together  as  on  a  throne. 
Modesty  like  Lincoln's  is  a  courtly  grace.  Reverence 
such  as  his  beseems  a  prince.  Such  humility,  reflecting 
with  heavenly  beauty  the  immediate  presence  of  God, 
may  clothe  a  mighty  man,  and  hold  the  center  of  a  mighty 
scene,  without  unseemliness,  and  it  wants  not  intelligence. 
This  at  least  this  scene  makes  clear. 


PART  III.    SYNTHESIS 

LINCOLN'S    MORAL    UNISON 

THE  marvelous  beauty  of  the  Athenian  Parthenon  is 
displayed  in  four  facades.  Upon  these  four  sides  runs  a 
frieze  in  a  continuous  band,  crowning  all  the  columns,  and 
binding  all  the  structure  into  a  single  shrine.  Compre 
hended  within  the  stately  course  of  that  all-encircling 
frieze  is  classic  demonstration  how  an  impressive  mani- 
foldness  of  sculptural  form  may  present  a  perfect  and 
impressive  unison. 

Something  such  is  Lincoln's  character,  as  it  stands  in 
this  second  inaugural.  In  this  address  four  personal 
qualities  stand  forth,  as  distinct  and  clear  to  the  eye  and 
thought  as  are  the  faces  of  the  Parthenon;  while,  like  the 
Parthenon,  the  author  of  that  address  is  indivisibly  and 
undeniably  one.  Both  are  alike  composite,  and  both  alike 
are  one.  Both  embrace  diversity,  but  all  in  perfect  har 
mony.  Both  have  perfect  unity,  but  without  monotony. 
Like  the  temple  of  Athene,  greeting  from  its  single  altar 
every  horizon  of  the  Grecian  sky,  Lincoln,  voicing  his 
solemn  oath  as  the  Nation's  president,  gives  utterance  to 
every  moral  element  in  our  American  life.  Here  is  some 
thing  worth  minute  inspection.  Here,  upreared  upon  our 
Western,  modern  American  soil,  is  a  noble  work  of  art,  as 
noble  as  any  in  the  ancient  East — finished,  balanced,  and 
enduring — the  ripened  moral  character  of  a  people's 
patriot. 

First  to  notice  narrowly  is  that  Lincoln's  moral  texture 

80 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  81 

is  fourfold.  Four  virtues  stamp  this  speech.  Four  strands 
compose  its  web.  Four  hues  commingle  in  its  light.  Four 
parts  convey  its  harmony.  This  four-foldiiess  is  dis 
cernible  distinctly. 

Plain  to  see  through  all  the  features  of  this  address,  as 
well-defined  as  the  features  of  his  friendly  face,  is  his 
kindliness.  Of  all  things,  war  was  most  deplorable.  Of 
all  things,  peace  was  most  to  be  desired.  All  malice  was 
to  be  disowned.  All  charity  was  to  be  indulged.  All 
wounds  were  to  be  bound  up.  All  sorrows  were  to  be 
consoled.  There  spoke  the  pleading  voice  of  love.  All 
men  were  bidden  to  love  their  neighbors  as  they  loved 
themselves.  Here  the  quality  of  moral  kindliness  is  un 
mistakably  and  indelibly  distinct. 

Quite  as  plain  is  his  ideal  and  illustration  of  integrity. 
As  manifest  to  all  the  world  is  his  inflexible  uprightness, 
as  is  the  outer  stature  of  his  erect  physique.  For  the 
equity  in  the  bondman's  protest  against  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  he  had  an  open  ear  and  a 
profound  respect.  In  the  confidence  that  the  judgments 
of  Almighty  God  were  altogether  just  he  was  not  ashamed 
to  make  public  announcement  of  his  abiding  faith.  Eager 
that  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  Nations  might 
always  last,  he  was  also  eager  that  it  should  be  just.  Firm 
ly  based,  for  his  Nation  and  for  himself,  upon  such  founda 
tions  of  self-respect,  resting  on  God,  and  resolute  for  the 
right,  he  had  no  other  thought  but  to  strive  with  unre 
mitting  constancy,  until  his  work  was  done.  Here  is 
moral  loyalty,  plainly  visible,  and  as  plainly  inviolate. 

Quite  as  clear  is  his  humility.  The  war,  as  Lincoln 
viewed  it,  was  a  humbling  visitation  upon  the  Nation  of 
the  Nation's  sins,  a  mighty  rebuke  upon  all  human  scorn 
and  pride.  In  all  that  sin  and  scorn  and  pride — the  crime 
and  guilt  of  slavery — Lincoln  had  no  slightest,  conscious, 


82  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

personal  share.  But  the  shame  and  woe  of  that  rebuke, 
as  it  fell  from  the  hand  of  God  upon  the  Nation  as  a  whole, 
he  bore  with  quiet,  meek  humility.  And  to  whatever 
further  judgment  the  Almighty  might  allot  he  humbly 
bowed  his  head,  confessing  openly  that,  in  his  own  heart 
and  thought,  God's  ways  had  been  proudly  misunder 
stood.  Here  is  reverent  humility,  and  here  is  humble 
reverence,  undeniable  and  undisguised. 

And  just  as  clear  is  his  supreme  esteem  for  values  that 
are  permanent  and  pure.  Above  all  changing  accidents 
Lincoln  honored  the  Godlike  human  soul.  In  harmony 
herewith  his  thoughts  and  arguments  were  prone  to  handle 
centuries.  And  in  rating  worth  his  standard  was  a  man's 
humanity.  Thus  he  shaped  the  records  and  the  prospects 
of  our  history  into  a  philosophy.  Thus  he  interpreted 
the  war.  It  was  God's  vindication  of  the  immortal  value 
of  the  humblest  man.  Carnal  pleasures  and  worldly 
gains,  wrung  from  human  lives  at  the  cost  of  the  degrada 
tion  and  debasement  of  the  human  soul,  and  in  defiance 
of  God's  eternal  and  indefeasible  laws,  Lincoln  saw  to  be 
of  all  things  the  most  foolhardy  and  crude.  So  spiritual 
and  pure  was  his  conception  of  God  and  man,  and  his  active 
understanding  of  the  meaning  of  historic  efforts  and  events. 
Ideals,  endeavors,  and  enjoyments,  even  though  normal 
and  worthy,  if  they  dealt  with  values  that  were  decaying 
and  gross,  were  cheaply  rated  by  him;  while  the  Nation's 
perpetuity,  each  man's  spiritual  quality,  and  God's  eternal 
purity  held  eminence  unfailingly  in  his  affection  and  es 
teem.  Here  is  spirituality,  pure  within,  and  by  the  in 
wardly  pure  plain  to  see. 

As  in  the  shapely  quadrilateral  of  the  Parthenon,  this 
fourfoldness  in  the  character  of  Lincoln  is  cardinal.  Each 
quality  is  an  element,  each  conforming  with  an  elemental 
factor  in  the  nature  of  every  man.  This  involves  that  in 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  83 

its  essential  substance  each  trait,  so  far  considered,  is 
incapable  of  analysis.  And  each  refuses  to  be  resolved 
into  something  else.  Each  one  is  a  simple  and  a  constant 
co-efficient  in  Lincoln's  moral  being.  Each  one  exists 
within  his  life  in  a  complete  integrity,  indivisible,  self- 
contained. 

His  humility,  thus,  is  integral  and  unmixed.  When 
Lincoln  bows,  as  he  does  in  this  inaugural,  before  his  God, 
and  therein  offers  his  life  in  a  bending  ministry  to  all  his 
fellowmen,  that  reverence  and  that  ministry  are,  as  minis 
try  and  as  reverence,  pure  lowliness.  The  phases  of  that 
lowliness  may  pass  through  continual  transformation. 
And  those  changing  forms  may  have  changing  designa 
tions.  It  may  be  submission  before  God's  sovereignty, 
reverence  before  his  majesty,  awe  before  his  mystery, 
obedience  before  his  authority,  trust  beneath  his  Provi 
dence,  confession  under  his  rebukes;  but  common,  essen 
tial,  and  unchanged  within  them  all  is  simple,  pure  humil- 

ity. 

So  with  the  fashion  of  his  humble  ways  among  his  fellow- 
men.  It  also  wears  a  varying  guise.  It  may  be  modest 
reticence,  abhorrence  of  parade,  companionship  with  need, 
submission  to  abuse,  co-partnership  with  a  brother's 
shame,  preferring  another's  gain,  honoring  other's  worth, 
seeking  ways  to  serve.  But  common,  essential  and  un 
changed  within  all  these  as  well,  is  simple,  pure  humility. 
It  is  a  solid  moral  trait,  substantial  and  irreducible.  As 
illustrated  in  Lincoln's  life,  it  is  entirely  dignified  and 
beautiful,  essential  and  inseparable.  As  shown  in  his  be 
havior,  it  corresponds  with  a  relationship,  as  inherent  and 
inwrought  in  his  very  being  as  his  very  breath.  As  a 
trait  of  Lincoln's  character,  his  humility  has  a  root,  as 
firm  and  durable  as  is  the  transcendence  of  God,  and  as 


84  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

are  the  opportunity  and  obligation  of  every  man  among 
his  brothermen  to  bear,  forbear,  and  serve. 

It  is  just  the  same  with  his  fidelity.  It  too,  is  an  un- 
compounded  and  imperative  moral  trait.  It  is  a  living, 
facile  grace,  easily  capable  of  many  kinds  of  affirmation. 
It  may  identify  itself  with  truth,  in  reasoned  or  implicit 
faith;  with  promise,  pledge,  or  oath,  in  loyalty;  with  proof 
by  testing  fires,  as  fidelity,  steadfastness,  or  reliability; 
with  unvarying,  free  adhesion  to  eternal  principles,  as 
consistency;  with  clear  conviction  of  sure  reality,  as  verity; 
with  ethical  straightforwardness,  as  rectitude,  sincerity, 
or  honesty;  with  even,  balanced  justice,  as  equity;  with 
the  innermost  and  final  norm  of  truth  in  any  personal  life, 
as  self-assertion,  or  self-respect.  But  common  within 
them  all,  unaltered  and  unalterable  amid  all  those  varied 
and  varying  forms,  is  simple,  unmixed  constancy.  In  any 
analysis  of  Lincoln's  moral  life  this  moral  trait  will  forever 
demand  distinct  and  distinctive  recognition  and  name. 
It  is  based  and  centered  in  his  estimate  and  estimation  of 
himself,  the  eye  of  his  very  honor,  the  core  of  his  nobility, 
the  very  sense  within  his  living  soul  of  the  life  of  his  in 
tegrity.  It  is  the  inward  attitude  of  his  moral  worth,  as 
invincible,  insistent,  and  elemental  as  any  purest  action 
of  his  self -consciousness. 

The  same  holds  true  of  Lincoln's  kindliness.  In  the 
balanced  harmony  of  his  character  the  note  of  human 
friendliness  is  a  persistent  and  indispensable  strain.  With 
out  that  melody  his  moral  consonance  would  be  painfully 
and  irretrievably  impaired.  Like  every  other  fundamental 
trait,  this  too  may  be  voiced  with  every  sort  of  easy, 
fluent  variation.  It  may  spring  spontaneously  from  deep 
within  the  heart,  as  benign  and  all-embracing  benevolence. 
It  may  overflow  with  benefits,  in  active,  bounteous  gen 
erosity.  It  may  bind  together  an  ideal  home  in  parental, 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  85 

filial,  fraternal  affection.  It  may  kindle  at  the  altars  of 
one's  native  land,  and  influence  the  heart  of  the  patriotic 
devotee.  It  may  break  through  all  the  accidents  of  birth 
and  race  into  universal  brotherhood.  It  may  befriend 
the  hurt,  and  needy,  and  bereft,  as  sympathy.  It  may  so 
prevail  as  to  bear  up  beneath  the  cruel  sin  of  alien  hearts 
in  the  sorrow  of  vicarious  love,  to  the  end  that  guilty  men 
may  be  redeemed  and  reconciled.  In  myriad  ways  this 
human  kindliness  may  speak  its  gentle  words  of  mercy, 
grace,  and  peace.  But  every  word  is  keyed  to  kindly 
fellowship.  Through  all  those  variations  this  note  is  prev 
alent.  And  it  is  keyed  to  a  relationship  as  universal 
and  as  unavoidable  as  are  the  bonds  of  human  brother 
hood.  This  wanting  in  any  moral  character  in  fact  or  in 
idea,  that  moral  character  is  unbalanced  and  incomplete. 
Its  mighty  influence  and  its  constant  evidence  in  Lincoln's 
active  life  supply  an  elemental  requisite  to  that  life's 
harmony.  It  is  his  full- voiced  answer  to  the  world-wide 
plea  for  human  friendliness. 

And  just  such  affirmations  must  be  made  concerning 
Lincoln's  pureness.  Like  each  of  the  other  three,  this 
quality,  too,  holds  a  place  and  eminence  distinctly  and 
uniquely  its  own.  No  other  trait  can  do  its  part  or  take 
its  place.  Its  function  and  its  office  permit  no  substitute. 
Nor  can  its  ministry  be  divided.  Its  claim  is  regal.  And 
in  any  rating  and  apportionment  among  the  other  three 
this  trait  must  be  granted  equal  primacy.  Its  presence 
and  its  purport  in  Lincoln's  total  life  are  clear  and  fair  and 
absolutely  radical.  Its  aspect  varies  like  the  aspect  of  the 
sky.  But  deep  within  those  variations  gleams  the  pure 
and  shining  blue.  It  may  win  triumph  over  greed  of 
appetite  in  temperance;  or  over  fleshly  passion  in  con 
tinence.  It  may  fix  supreme  desire,  not  on  decaying 
things,  but  on  undying  life;  not  on  things  that  change 


86  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

and  disappoint,  but  on  values  that  abide  and  hold  their 
own.  It  may  search  far  beyond  things  visible  for  things 
unseen;  and  look  within  all  symbols,  discerning  wrhat  they 
mean.  It  may  detect  within  down-trodden,  untutored 
men  souls  kindred  to  their  Maker.  It  may  transcend  all 
idol  forms,  and  make  all  worship  spiritual.  It  may  see 
how  ends  outvalue  means;  and  how  bottles  should  not 
outvalue  wine.  In  the  midst  of  our  universal  lot  of  acci 
dent,  disease  and  death  it  may  hold  fast,  for  all  the  pure 
in  heart,  to  the  hope  of  a  happy  immortality.  But  en 
during  and  undying,  common  and  unchanged  within  them 
all  is  simple,  spiritual  purity.  The  soul  asserts  supremacy. 
Things  that  fluctuate  and  finally  dissolve,  however  be 
fitting  and  beautiful  while  they  thrive,  are  admired  and 
valued  far  beneath  the  immortal  and  unchanging  worth 
of  God  and  Godlike  souls  of  men.  This  clear  vision  and 
high  evaluation  of  spiritual  things  in  the  thought  and  life 
of  Lincoln  can  never  be  omitted  nor  excluded  in  any  final 
analysis  of  his  moral  life.  It  ranks  among  the  elements 
of  his  character,  as  each  or  any  one  of  its  facades  holds 
rank  about  the  Parthenon. 

Thus  in  the  composition  of  Lincoln's  moral  being  there 
are  four  solid,  permanent,  radical  integers — his  kindliness, 
his  loyalty,  his  pureness,  and  his  humility.  And  these 
four  elements  of  his  character  face  the  four  cardinal  points 
in  the  compass  of  his  life — his  brother  man,  his  conscious 
self,  his  flesh-bound  soul,  and  his  sovereign  Lord.  So 
inherent  in  his  very  structure,  so  inwrought  in  his  con 
scious  character,  so  deeply  based,  so  cardinal,  and  so  en 
during  and  irreducible  is  this  fourfoldness  in  Lincoln's 
inward  life. 

And  now,  as  with  the  Parthenon,  this  finished  circuit  of 
these  four  constituents  makes  the  outline  of  Lincoln's 
character  not  only  clear  and  cardinal,  but  inclusive  and 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  87 

complete.  Combining  in  their  significance  and  sweep  all 
fleshly  and  material  things ;  all  things  superior  and  supreme ; 
all  the  realm  and  range  of  human  brotherhood;  and  all 
the  truth  and  worth  within  his  own  identity — every  factor 
and  relation  of  his  conscious  life  has  been  embraced.  His 
neighbor  and  himself  as  conscious  peers,  each  in  loyalty 
and  love  demanding  and  awarding  equal  mutual  heed; 
his  spirit  and  his  flesh,  the  two  and  only  two  constituents 
of  his  personal  life;  his  finite  nature,  facing,  with  the  daily 
meed  and  due  of  humble  reverence,  his  infinite  Creator, 
the  Lord  of  grace  and  truth — these  exhaust  the  primal 
co-efficients  of  his  life;  these  enjoin  and  specify  his  primal 
obligations;  these  inspire  and  consummate  every  moral 
excellence.  When  these  four  virtues  are  discovered  and 
admired,  when  each  and  all  are  elected  and  achieved; 
when  any  man  stands  true  and  firm  in  self-respecting 
constancy;  benign  and  kind  in  self -de  voting  love;  spirit 
ually  refined  and  pure  amid  a  world  of  corroding  change; 
bending  before  the  Most  High  God  with  the  adoration 
and  awe  that  are  forever  so  beautiful  and  meet,  his  moral 
stature  stands  fully  finished,  balanced,  and  mature.  So 
plain  to  see,  so  integral,  and  so  comprehensive  are  these 
four  qualities  of  Lincoln's  character. 

And  now  a  mighty  statement  is  waiting  to  be  made. 
These  four  constituents  of  Lincoln's  virtue  arc  not  four 
fractions  of  his  character,  each  possessing  and  command 
ing  in  solitude  and  exclusively  some  separate  segment  of 
his  morality.  Not  alone  is  each  one  integral,  but  Lincoln 
is  integrally  in  each.  His  kindliness  is  not  the  action  of  a 
section  of  his  character;  it  enlists  and  occupies  his  being 
as  a  whole  and  indi visibly.  In  Lincoln's  faithfulness 
Lincoln's  stature  stands  complete.  Pureness  is  by  no 
means  an  occasional  or  intermittent  exercise  of  his  judg 
ment  or  choice.  Nor  in  the  geography  of  his  life  is  Lin- 


88  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

coin's  lowliness  local  or  sectional.  The  total  Lincoln  is 
kindly,  faithful,  pure,  and  lowly  equally,  fully  and  con 
tinually.  When  in  this  address  he  calls  the  Nation  to 
firmness  in  the  right  as  God  reveals  the  right,  his  man 
hood  stands  full-sized  in  its  exercise  and  pledge  of  patriotic 
loyalty  to  duty  and  oath.  When  again  with  pitying  heart 
he  makes  reference  to  the  slave  driver's  lash,  to  those  cen 
turies  of  unpaid  toil,  to  the  terrible  cruelty  of  the  war 
with  its  sorrowful  entail  of  widows  and  orphans  and  wounds 
and  graves,  and,  disowning  all  malice,  voices  his  great- 
souled  plea  for  universal  charity  and  everlasting  peace, 
the  full  flood  of  his  full  strength  is  pouring  through  his 
speech.  WThen  he  reminds  his  fellowmen  how  far  the 
worth  of  man  transcends  all  other  wealth,  he  is  professing 
and  commending  a  faith  to  which  all  his  hopes  stand 
pledged.  And  when  in  humble  fellowship  with  humble 
men  he  abjures  all  hollow  boasts  and  pride,  and,  bending 
beneath  God's  just  rebukes,  voices  for  all  the  land  our 
national  guilt,  from  that  humiliation  and  lowliness  no 
portion  of  his  being  is  exempt.  Each  cardinal  virtue  en 
grosses  and  engages  all  his  soul. 

And  now  ensues  with  a  sequence  that  is  irresistible,  an 
affirmation  that  in  all  this  study  of  Lincoln's  character 
must  stand  supreme.  Integral  as  is  each  several  one  of 
these  four  virtues  in  Lincoln's  life,  and  integral  as  is  Lin 
coln's  life  in  each  single  several  trait,  these  two  integrities 
can  be  clearly  seen  to  deeply  interblend  and  truly  coincide. 
There  is  among  the  four  qualities  within  his  life  no  dis 
sonance.  Here  emerges  Lincoln's  moral  unison.  As  in 
the  Parthenon  all  the  elements  harmonize  and  the  edifice 
is  one,  so  in  Lincoln  moral  manifoldness  unifies.  There 
is  throughout  coincidence.  The  heart  that  bows  towards 
God,  in  that  very  act  of  meekest  acquiescence  swells  with 
pity  for  all  who  mourn  and  bleed,  with  indignant  jealousy 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  89 

for  equity,  and  with  a  supreme  esteem  for  immortal  souls. 
These  four  virtues  do  not  exist  and  operate  asunder. 
They  do  not  come  into  view  in  this  inaugural  in  sequence, 
each  one  in  turn  displacing  and  eclipsing  the  one  that 
went  and  shone  before.  They  coexist,  each  one  continuing 
undiminished  and  unobscured,  each  one  fully  active  and 
plain  to  see,  their  confluent  tides  pouring  through  the  same 
identical  phrase,  the  total  strength  of  Lincoln  surging 
alike  in  each.  Through  the  whole  address  thrills  Lincoln's 
whole  conviction,  all  his  passion,  and  the  total  vigor  of 
his  will  respecting  truth  and  falsity,  hate  and  charity,  greed 
and  purity,  pride  and  humility.  Here  is  moral  unison. 

To  find  the  secret  to  this  moral  synthesis  demands  and 
deserves  the  sharpest  scrutiny.  That  this  may  be  under 
stood  it  requires  to  be  seen  that  these  four  virtues,  so 
clearly  distinguishable  and  so  perfectly  combined,  are  as 
clearly  and  perfectly  akin.  Lincoln's  equity  and  charity, 
as  voiced  in  this  address,  are  not  alien  energies.  They 
vitally  correspond.  They  bear  mutual  resemblance. 
Each  springs  from  deep  within  himself,  from  his  elemental 
manhood,  a  manhood  that  finds  in  his  brother's  life  and 
liberty  as  deep  rejoicing  as  in  his  own.  And  herein  he  is 
also  kindred  wTith  God,  as  God's  purposes  and  ways  are 
defined  in  this  address.  God,  too,  is  deeply  just  and  kind. 
Here  roots  Lincoln's  meekness  under  God's  rebuke,  and 
Lincoln's  firmness  in  his  understanding  of  what  is  right. 
Between  his  heart's  chief  wish  and  God's  high  will  the 
moral  correspondence  becomes  identity.  So  deep  is  the 
coincidence  and  agreement  of  Lincoln's  reverence  and 
equity  and  charity  within  himself  and  with  his  God.  The 
same  inwrought  agreement  shines  in  the  profound  affinity 
of  Lincoln's  kindliness  and  faithfulness  and  lowliness 
with  his  pure  idealism.  In  him  they  are  all  as  fully  unified 


90  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

as  is  his  manliness.  So  deeply  intimate  is  the  vital  syn 
thesis  of  Lincoln's  moral  unison. 

This  position  is  pivotal.  If  either  of  these  four  virtues, 
here  defined  and  designated  as  elementally  distinct  and 
cardinal,  can  be  ever  merged  into  any  one,  or  any  two,  or 
all  the  other  three;  or  if  any  one  can  be  dissolved,  or 
analyzed  into  something  else  still  more  elemental  and 
pure,  that  possibility  should  be  made  passing  sure  and 
clear  at  just  this  point.  For  from  the  affirmations,  thus 
far  laid  down,  as  to  the  cardinal  validity  and  vital  har 
mony  of  these  four  moral  traits,  and  of  the  four  founda 
tions  in  which  these  virtues  rest,  follow  other  affirmations 
in  the  chapters  that  now  ensue,  which  no  artificial  postu 
late  can  ever  uphold. 

But  here,  in  passing,  two  standard  affirmations  are 
required.  It  is  not  to  be  asserted  or  assumed  that  Lin 
coln's  personal  life  attained  perfection,  and  transcended 
sin.  In  the  chapter  on  humility,  and  in  chapters  yet  to 
come  his  own  deep  sense  of  deep  unworthiness  stands 
evident.  But  in  his  clear  and  firm  ideal  and  desire,  aglow 
throughout  with  Godlike  grief  for  all  delinquency,  appear 
the  qualities  above  defined. 

And  then  these  qualities,  which  his  unique  career  dis 
plays,  are,  as  moral  qualities,  in  no  respect  unique  or 
beyond  the  measure  of  any  man.  They  beseem  quite 
normally  the  plainest  of  us  all.  This  truth  deserves  full 
heed  and  unreserved  respect.  Lincoln  was  beautifully 
like  a  little  child.  He  was  indeed  a  hero  and  performed 
heroic  deeds.  But  with  all  his  heroism,  as  regards  his 
moral  qualities,  the  humblest  mortal  may  be  his  peer. 
Here  is  the  hidden  secret  of  the  universal  and  ungrudging 
admiration  which  his  heroic  character  commands.  He 
is  the  world's  model  and  guarantee  of  a  world  democracy. 


PART  IV.    STUDIES 

His  SYMMETRY — THE  PROBLEM  OF  BEAUTY 

IN  Lincoln's  character  is  a  beautiful  illustration  of  moral 
balance.  He  stands  before  the  eye  unchangeably,  like 
the  Capitol  dome  at  Washington,  a  signal  exhibition  of 
firmness,  harmony,  and  repose.  As  he  fills  his  place  as 
president,  he  seems  to  face  the  whole  horizon  at  once.  A 
study  of  his  life  leaves  the  impression  that  he  is  resting 
upon  a  solid,  ample  base;  that  his  weight  is  well  distributed; 
that  his  energies  are  united  evenly;  that  all  his  parts 
agree  together;  that  throughout  his  structure  he  is  at  ease; 
while  yet  there  swell  and  rise  within  his  breast  proud,  far- 
seeing  hopes  that  only  a  Nation's  grandest  magnitude 
could  give  complete  embodiment.  This  massive  poise,  and 
breadth,  and  balanced  evenness  are  the  seemly  vesture  of 
his  character.  They  well  become  his  inner  attitude. 
They  are  the  open  intimation  of  the  shapeliness  and 
majesty  of  the  unseen  soul  within.  And  quite  as  worthy 
of  study  and  admiration  as  our  national  dome,  is  this 
well-poised  nobility  of  Lincoln's  personality. 

With  this  intent  one  may  well  review  this  last  inaugural, 
for  it  enshrines  superior  beauty.  Not  unfittingly  did  it 
find  first  utterance  beneath  the  presence  of  that  imposing 
masterpiece  at  our  national  Capitol.  As  in  that  circling 
colonnade,  so  in  the  measured  cadences  of  this  address, 
there  is  exalted  harmony.  Its  phrases,  rhythmic  and 
pleasurable,  rank  almost  as  music.  Read  however  many 
tunes,  its  sentences  never  tire.  Minds  the  most  refined 

91 


92  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

are  glad  to  point  to  this  address  as  to  a  noble  monument, 
assured  that  its  perusal  will  awaken  in  any  American 
high  national  pride,  and  in  the  minds  of  all  men  a  pure 
delight. 

This  commanding,  gracious  dignity  is  not  alone  a  matter 
of  even  rhythms  and  pleasing  cadences.  It  is  to  its 
author's  moral  poise  and  full  harmony  that  this  speech 
owes  its  symmetry.  Indeed  this  is  all  its  substance.  Of 
rhetorical  decoration  it  is  absolutely  bare.  Its  only  title 
to  its  universal  admiration  is  the  patent  fact  that  its 
author  has  traced  and  set  therein,  as  with  an  engraver's 
nicest  art,  the  princely  fashion  of  his  high-born  soul.  Its 
finished  ethical  symmetry  is  all  the  art  that  gives  this 
speech  its  everlasting  charm. 

What  now  is  the  inmost  nature  of  the  attractiveness 
that  holds  possession  of  this  last  inaugural?  In  this  in 
quiry  is  extended  a  winsome  invitation  to  any  beauty- 
loving  mind.  As  such  a  mind  fixes  its  inspection  intently 
upon  the  vital  structure  of  this  address,  he  sees  within  its 
shapely  borders  four  princely  virtues,  standing  together 
in  a  courtly  league.  Each  virtue  stands  mature  in  un 
restrained  virility,  no  one  of  them  overbearing  the  other 
three,  nor  being  overborne.  With  easy,  manly  grace  each 
virtue  does  its  part,  while  all  harmoniously  combine,  to 
support  with  Godlike  sagacity  and  strength  the  problems 
of  a  Nation's  destiny  in  days  and  tasks  that  mock  the 
sagest  counsel  and  baffle  the  proudest  might  of  man. 

Like  stately  columns  beneath  a  stately  dome,  these 
virtues  deserve  regard.  Each  one  is  integral  in  Lincoln's 
personal  majesty,  and  in  the  finely  finished  power  of  this 
address.  The  exhibition  of  personal  self-respect,  the  very 
eye  of  moral  verity,  as  displayed  in  Lincoln's  own  reliabili 
ty,  and  idealized  within  his  steadfast  plan  for  national 
consistency,  is  fashioned  forth  within  the  well-set  features 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  93 

of  this  address  with  all  the  well-poised  grandeur  of  the 
Olympian  Zeus.  The  tones  of  kindliest  friendliness  to 
wards  detractors  and  defenders  alike,  repelling  all  maligni 
ty,  unfailingly  benign,  cannot  in  any  cadence  be  misun 
derstood.  They  fall  like  healing  music,  reminding  listen 
ers  of  home,  and  hearthstone,  and  a  father's  heart.  The 
lowly  attitude  of  penitent  submissiveness  towards  God, 
with  its  wonderful  mingling  of  solemn  awe,  adoring  wor 
ship,  and  conscious  fellowship,  undeniably  without  hypoc 
risy,  as  without  restraint,  institutes  in  this  address  noth 
ing  less  than  the  model  and  inspiration  of  a  reverent,  relig 
ious  liturgy,  fit  to  lead  and  voice  a  Nation's  humble  peni 
tence  and  praise.  The  kindled  and  enkindling  zeal  for 
the  transcendent  worth  of  men  above  all  other  wealth, 
the  burning  hearth  from  whose  free  flame  springs  up 
every  passion  glowing  through  this  speech,  is  like  the  fer 
vent  ardor  of  a  prophet's  heart,  watching  with  a  patient, 
eager  wistfulness  towards  the  dawning  of  a  day  that  shall 
never  pass  away. 

These  are  signal  qualities  in  this  address,  each  one  erect 
and  free,  its  signal  beauty  and  virility  undiminished  and 
complete.  But  to  be  noticed  here  is,  not  their  individual 
comeliness,  but  the  beauty  of  their  companionship.  They 
consort  together  perfectly.  And  in  that  unison  is  a  pecul 
iar,  an  individual  attractiveness.  Here  is  a  symmetry 
that  pleads  for  appreciation.  It  is  the  beauty  of  this  uni 
son  throughout  this  speech  that  constitutes  its  eloquence. 
See  how  Lincoln's  very  confession  of  error  puts  him  in 
line  with  God.  Feel  how  his  righteousness  affiliates  with 
tenderness.  Mark  how  his  heed  for  earthly  things  pro 
vides  a  body  for  his  idealism.  Within  the  unyielding 
rigor  of  his  resolute  will  see  how  bending  and  genial  is  his 
attitude.  Here  is  marvelous  symphony — sin  and  error 
and  war,  light  and  truth  and  peace,  so  comprised  and  com- 


94  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

bined,  so  resolved  and  reconciled  in  this  speaker  and  in 
this  address,  as  to  show  a  Nation  how  in  the  discord  of 
arms  heaven's  own  harmonies  may  be  heard.  To  this 
fine  blending  of  tones  that  are  distinct,  to  this  pure  con 
sonance  of  notes  that  are  diverse,  it  were  well  for  all  our 
ears  to  become  accustomed.  This  would  mean  a  true  and 
real  refinement.  To  this  refinement  Lincoln  did  achieve. 
With  this  deep  consonance  his  ear  became  familiar.  Hence 
the  deep-toned  fulness  and  carrying  power  in  the  moral 
resonance  of  this  address.  It  faces  a  manifold  emergency 
with  sentiments  likewise  manifold,  but  so  composed  to 
gether  as  to  lead  all  discordant  voices  into  lasting  peace. 

This  moral  equilibrium  carried  within  it  generous 
breadth.  This  is  a  striking  aspect  of  this  inaugural.  It 
comprehends  and  resolves  together,  with  an  ease  that 
seems  an  instinct,  the  total  orbit  of  our  national  life. 
Within  its  little  compass  is  the  easy  movement  of  the  full 
momentum  of  our  past.  It  holds  in  easy  grasp  the  full 
circumference  of  concurrent  events.  It  evinces,  though 
with  amazing  brevity,  that  the  ponderous  issues  of  the 
coming  day  are  a  familiar  topic  in  his  brooding  thought. 
And  all  of  this  consists  together  within  his  thought  with 
even,  equal  recognition.  Events  are  made  to  balance. 
Causes  and  effects  are  so  held  face  to  face  as  to  declare 
by  demonstration  their  true  comparison.  Great  issues 
and  mighty  forces  are  given  their  needed  amplitude  in  his 
observation  and  review.  The  weight  of  centuries  is  in 
his  ponderings.  This  was  the  style  and  attitude  of  his 
mental  deliberations.  He  was  predisposed  to  cast  and 
arrange  his  thoughts  in  national  dimensions.  Union, 
liberty,  manhood,  Providence,  were  the  themes  to  which 
his  soul  was  drawn,  as  though  by  gravity. 

Thus  Lincoln's  influence  attained  solidity.  The  place 
of  this  inaugural,  and  of  its  author's  honor,  in  our  Ameri- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  95 

can  life,  and  in  the  larger  world  of  worthy  civics  is  well- 
secured.  The  qualities  embodied  in  this  address,  each  one 
so  elemental,  and  all  so  eternally  allied,  are  more  enduring, 
as  they  stand  poised  within  those  balanced  paragraphs, 
than  any  qualities  resident  in  marble  or  bronze.  The 
proposition  that  the  hostile  interests  of  a  mighty  Nation 
be  reconciled  into  eternal  f riendliness  and  constancy  under 
the  awful  discipline  of  God  through  sacrificial  baptisms 
of  blood,  contains  within  its  balanced  and  majestic  terms 
an  interior  cohesion  and  stability  that  nothing  can  ever 
disintegrate  or  move.  It  is  without  a  bias  anywhere. 
Through  all  its  massiveness  the  weight  is  even  absolutely. 
And  its  moral  proportions  are  in  perfect  truth.  It  is 
a  monument  of  finished  majesty,  solidity,  and  grace.  It 
is  a  masterpiece  of  moral  symmetry. 

This  massive  grandeur  in  Lincoln's  moral  character 
finds  an  exalted  illustration  in  the  closing  half  of  his  mes 
sage  to  Congress  hi  December  of  1862.  It  forms  in  itself 
a  document  that  may  well  be  held  before  the  eye  as  a 
companion  piece  to  his  last  inaugural.  He  is  making  an 
elaborate  argument  for  "compensated  emancipation." 
He  is  laboring  to  make  clear  that  the  issues  pending  in 
the  center  of  the  war  are  no  concern  of  mere  geography, 
but  rather  a  problem  hanging  upon  the  free  decisions  of 
living  citizens;  and  that  in  the  interest  of  universal  liberty 
a  full  agreement  by  Congress  and  the  chief  executive  to 
tax  the  Nation  peaceably,  to  remunerate  all  loss  entailed 
by  freeing  every  slave,  would  surely  win  the  requisite 
electoral  support,  stay  the  war  at  once,  establish  lasting 
peace,  and  give  demonstration  of  a  civic  character  and 
courage  fit  to  brighten  and  enhearten  all  the  world.  He 
closes  his  appeal  with  these  following  words: — 

"Fellow-citizens,  we  cannot  escape  history.  We  of 
this  Congress  and  this  administration  will  be  remembered 


96  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

in  spite  of  ourselves.  No  personal  significance  or  insig 
nificance  can  spare  one  or  another  of  us.  The  fiery  trial 
through  which  we  pass  will  light  us  down,  in  honor  or  in 
dishonor,  to  the  latest  generation.  We  say  we  are  for  the 
Union.  The  world  will  not  forget  that  we  say  this.  We 
know  how  to  save  the  Union.  The  world  knows  we  do 
know  how  to  save  it.  We — even  we  here — hold  the  power 
and  bear  the  responsibility.  In  giving  freedom  to  the 
slave,  we  assure  freedom  to  the  free — honorable  alike  in 
what  we  give  and  what  we  preserve.  We  shall  nobly  save 
or  meanly  lose  the  last,  best  hope  of  earth.  Other  means 
may  succeed;  this  could  not  fail.  The  way  is  plain,  peace 
ful,  generous,  just — a  way  which,  if  followed,  the  world 
will  forever  applaud,  and  God  must  forever  bless. " 

There  is  in  that  message  a  document  that  has  the  scope 
and  the  grandeur  of  the  Alps.  It  offers  an  imposing 
illustration  how  politics,  so  prone  to  become  and  to  re 
main  ignoble,  may  come  to  have  surpassing  beauty;  how 
statesmanship,  vested  in  a  worthy  character,  may  wear 
transcendent  dignity.  This  appeal,  as  shaped  by  Lincoln, 
is  a  monument  fashioned  by  a  master  hand.  Note  its 
basis  in  equity,  all  the  Nation  in  common  accepting  their 
money  cost  of  a  common  complicity  in  wrong.  Note  its 
inscription  to  human  goodwill,  curtailing  the  period,  and 
staying  the  bloodshed  of  the  war.  Note  its  enduring 
substance  and  composition,  built  up  of  human  hearts, 
cemented  in  the  action  of  freedom  in  the  human  soul,  a 
towering  protest  against  all  gains  and  consequences  where 
human  liberty  is  denied.  Note  the  humble  reverence  in 
the  soaring  appeal  to  the  benediction  of  God,  with  which 
the  whole  address  concludes.  Note  the  conscience-stirring 
reference  to  inevitable  and  over-ruling  law,  in  the  ominous 
intimation  that  the  light  of  history  would  luminously 
adjudge  each  several  man.  And  note,  with  all  the  imperial 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  97 

urgency  of  the  appeal,  its  vesture  of  infinite  respect  for  the 
right  of  every  congressman  to  make  a  free  decision  of  and 
by  and  for  himself  alone. 

Here  is  something  at  once  most  imposing  and  most  en 
gaging.  Here  is  handicraft  of  the  highest  grade.  The 
man  that  conceived  and  drafted  that  political  appeal  was, 
in  the  realm  of  politics,  no  mean  architect.  He  is,  in  these 
arguments,  measuring  the  forces  elemental  in  a  great 
Republic,  as  Michael  Angelo  measured  gravitation.  He 
is  dealing  with  decades,  and  with  centuries,  with  freedom 
and  with  slaves,  with  a  transient  Congress  and  the  course 
of  history,  as  builders  deal  with  granite  blocks.  Em 
bracing  things  dispersed  and  widely  variant,  as  also  things 
mutually  inclined  towards  fellowship,  he  defines  and 
demonstrates,  as  a  master  artisan,  how  they  may  all  be 
grasped  and  overcome  and  harmonized  in  a  commanding 
unison.  With  a  skilled  designer's  easy  grace  he  drafts  a 
sketch  of  our  transformed  career,  as  plain  and  open  to  the 
observing  eye  as  are  the  massive,  graceful  movements  of 
deploying  clouds  across  the  sky.  Here  is  majesty,  lofty, 
balanced,  and  secure.  And  all  its  excellence  is  ethical. 
And  it  pleads  to  be  made  supreme  in  earthly  politics.  In 
such  a  message  is  ideal  courtliness.  Its  bearer  must  be  a 
comely  prince.  The  man  and  author  upon  whose  polished 
tongue  those  sentiments  found  birth  must  be  of  royal 
lineage. 

Thus  Lincoln  has  given  to  civics  ideal  comeliness  and 
dignity.  In  his  hand,  and  under  his  design,  politics  wears 
heavenly  majesty.  In  his  conception  of  a  State,  though 
devised  and  traced  in  times  when  cruelty  and  sordidness 
and  unfairness  and  negligence  of  God  were  sadly  prevalent 
through  the  Nation's  life,  there  rose  to  view,  in  his  pure 
patriotism,  a  civic  standard  in  which,  through  holy  fear 
of  God,  all  men  were  rated  at  their  immortal  worth,  and 


98  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

treated  with  the  love  and  fairness  that  were  the  mutual 
due  of  freemen  who  were  peers.  Here  is  a  portrait  of  a 
patriot  upon  which  no  artist  can  easily  improve — a  por 
trait  which  attests  in  Lincoln's  soul  a  pure  and  a  free  idea 
of  what  true  art  must  ever  be. 

And  it  is  not  without  profound  significance  for  art  that 
Lincoln's  statesmanship  has  become  one  of  the  finest 
objects  in  our  modern  world  for  artists  to  idealize.  The 
very  features  of  his  face,  that  were  wont  to  be  esteemed 
most  plain,  have  come  to  show  a  symmetry  that  is  beauti 
ful.  And  his  whole  outward  frame,  that  men  so  many 
times  have  called  ungainly,  has  come  to  bear  and  body 
forth  a  dignity  such  as  summons  finest  bronze  and  marble 
to  their  most  exalted  ministry.  Whence  came  to  that 
plain  face  and  plainer  frame  such  symmetry  and  dignity? 
Let  artists  contemplate  and  reply.  For  in  Lincoln's  man 
hood  stature,  where  utmost  rudeness  has  become  trans 
muted  to  refinement,  all  men  are  taught  that  true  beauty 
and  true  art  are  ethical.  In  moral  harmony  is  found  ideal 
symmetry. 

His  COMPOSURE — THE  PROBLEM  OF  PESSIMISM 

IN  the  foregoing  pages  reference  has  been  made  repeat 
edly  to  Lincoln's  poise.  In  the  chapter  just  concluded 
this  poise  has  been  studied  for  its  beauty.  This  attitude 
will  repay  still  further  scrutiny.  For  looked  at  again,  and 
from  another  point  of  view,  it  reveals  itself  as  a  reservoir 
of  energy.  Seen  thus,  Lincoln's  notable  poise  becomes  a 
mighty  store  of  potential,  and  indeed  of  active  force.  It 
may  be  described  as  a  mingling  of  energy  and  repose,  of 
resourcefulness  and  rest,  showing  and  playing  through  all 
his  influence  among  other  men,  and  largely  explaining  its 
potency. 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  99 

Of  just  this  personal  habitude,  through  all  the  years  of 
Lincoln's  participation  in  our  national  affairs,  there  was 
strenuous  need  and  requisition.  His  public  course  ran 
through  an  era  in  our  national  career  of  unprecedented 
internal  turbulence.  The  house  was  divided  against  itself. 
The  cause  of  the  dissension  was  a  diametrical  opposition 
and  an  irreconcilable  contention  of  views  touching  a  matter 
so  radical  as  the  basis  of  our  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  the  purport  of  our  fundamental  national  document, 
the  Constitution.  To  the  men  on  either  side  of  this  con 
tention  it  seemed  as  though  their  antagonists  were  bent 
upon  uprooting  and  removing  the  very  hills.  This  ob 
stinate  and  inveterate  disagreement  revolved  about  the 
single,  simple,  fateful  question  of  the  right  and  wrong  of 
holding  men  in  bonds.  For  a  full  generation  before  Lin 
coln  entered  the  lists  the  conflict  had  been  bitterly  intense, 
refusing  to  be  composed  or  assuaged.  Near  the  beginning 
of  the  last  decade  of  Lincoln's  life  he  put  on  his  armor 
and  chose  his  side.  In  1858,  while  competing  with  Doug 
las  for  a  seat  in  the  U.  S.  Senate,  Lincoln  made  a  declara 
tion  that,  for  its  bearing  upon  his  own  career  and  its  in 
fluence  in  national  affairs,  has  become  historic;  while 
for  its  testimony  to  the  topic  of  this  chapter  it  has  the 
very  first  significance.  The  core  of  that  declaration  was 
a  quotation  from  words  of  Christ,  when  refuting  the  charge 
that  he  was  in  league  with  Beelzebub: — "A  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand."  This  quotation  was  cited 
by  Lincoln  to  edge  his  affirmation  that  the  national  agita 
tion  concerning  slavery,  then  in  full  course,  and  continually 
augmenting,  would  not  cease  until  a  crisis  should  be 
reached  and  passed.  This  was  his  firm  assurance.  A 
national  crisis  was  at  hand.  But  to  this  assurance,  that 
the  government  could  not  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free,  he  attested  another  confidence  equally  as- 


100  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

sured: — "I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I 
do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect  it  will 
cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all 
the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest 
the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public 
mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  is  in  the  course  of  ulti 
mate  extinction;  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till 
it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as 
new,  North  as  well  as  South. " 

That  was  said  with  resolute  and  imposing  deliberation  in 
July  of  1858.  In  that  utterance  Lincoln's  attitude  de 
serves  analysis,  and  for  many  reasons;  but  in  particular 
for  its  revelation  of  his  composure.  He  knew  full  well 
what  tremendous  issues  for  himself  and  for  the  Nation 
were  involved  in  what  he  said.  He  knew  that  his  appeal 
for  the  senatorship  at  Washington  was  thereby  gravely 
imperiled.  He  knew  that  it  foreboded  national  convul 
sions  and  throes.  He  knew  that  for  himself  and  for  the 
government  a  mighty  crisis  was  ahead.  And  he  knew 
that  in  that  crisis  the  alternatives  were  for  all  humanity 
supreme.  The  issues  were  nothing  less  than  human 
freedom  and  equality,  or  human  tyranny  and  bonds.  In 
the  stress  and  strain  of  an  age-long  strife  like  this,  many  a 
man  has  swerved  to  moral  pessimism. 

From  the  date  of  that  speech  Lincoln  stood  in  the  face 
of  that  vicissitude.  Indeed  for  his  few  remaining  years 
he  was,  in  all  that  deepening  commotion,  an  energetic  and 
influential  central  force.  And  he  never  yielded  to  despair. 
In  this  same  month  he  issued  to  Senator  Douglas  his 
doughty  challenge  to  a  series  of  debates.  During  those 
debates  Lincoln  forged  his  way  into  a  preeminence  that 
amounted  almost  to  solitude,  as  champion  of  a  people  and 
a  cause  that,  for  weary  generations,  had  been  under  all 
but  hopeless  oppression  and  reproach.  Through  all  those 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  101 

debates  Lincoln's  single  heart  was  nothing  less  than  a 
national  theater  of  a  solicitude  nothing  les$< tiran  nation^. 
Upon  his  lone  shoulders  lay  the  gravest  'burdens'  of  his 
day.  The  ideals  of  a  Nation  lay;  upen  his-^anvil;,.tb*e* 
national  temper  was  being  forged  beneath'  his  nand. 
Highest  chivalry  waged  against  him,  bearing  tempered 
steel,  and  jealous  of  an  old  and  proud  prestige. 

In  the  immediate  outcome  of  those  debates  Lincoln 
met  defeat.  But  farther  on  he  only  found  himself  in 
volved  more  deeply  still  in  the  anguish  of  the  crisis  he  had 
foretold.  The  national  disagreement  was  verging  towards 
th.e  Nation's  dissolution,  heightening  at  length  into  seces 
sion  and  actual,  long-drawn  civil  war.  So  tremendous 
was  the  crisis  Lincoln  foresaw.  And  this  was  precipitated 
directly  by  his  election  to  the  presidency.  So  vitally  were 
his  own  fortune  and  fate  bound  up  in  the  crisis  he  fore 
told.  So  pitiless  and  fundamental  was  the  challenge  to 
his  hope.  His  total  administration  was  spent  in  the 
tumult  of  arms.  By  no  possibility  in  any  Nation's  con 
scious  life  could  civil  confusion  be  worse  confounded 
than  during  the  period  of  his  presidential  terms.  Be 
ginning  with  seven  states  in  open  secession,  and  brought 
to  an  end  by  assassination,  the  measure  of  his  supreme 
official  life  was  full  to  either  brim  with  perils  and  sorrows 
and  fears,  such  as  any  single  human  heart  could  hardly 
contain.  But  the  undiminished,  overwhelming  volume 
of  those  fears  and  sorrows  and  cares  was  encompassed 
every  day  within  his  anxious,  ample,  patriot  heart.  When 
facing  in  August  of  1864  the  national  election,  upon  which 
this  last  inaugural  oath  was  based,  he  said: — *'I  cannot 
fly  from  my  thoughts — my  solicitude  for  this  great  country 
follows  me  wherever  I  go.  I  do  not  think  it  is  personal 
vanity  or  ambition,  though  I  am  not  free  from  these 
infirmities;  but  I  cannot  but  feel  that  the  weal  or  woe  of 


102  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

this  great  Nation  will  be  decided  in  November."  So 
•momentous- ai id  grave  seemed  to  him  the  meaning  and 
weight  of  the  contention  that  drove  the  Nation  into  war. 
Iii  this  estimate,  'as  said  before,  he  stood  almost  in  solitude. 
"Our  best  and  greatest  men,"  he  said  in  New  Haven  in 
1860,  "have  greatly  underestimated  the  size  of  this  ques 
tion.  They  have  constantly  brought  forward  small  cures 
for  great  sores — plasters  too  small  to  cover  the  wound." 
To  Lincoln's  credit  it  must  forever  be  said  that  he  had  a 
true  prevision  of  the  agony  through  which  the  Nation 
must  strive,  as  she  reached  and  passed  the  crisis  which  he 
saw  in  1858  to  be  her  predestined  and  impending  fate. 

And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  in  1861,  when  Fort  Sumter 
was  assailed,  and  the  sharp  imperious  alternative  of  imme 
diate  dissolution  or  blood  faced  the  Nation's  eye,  he  was 
not  surprised  or  unprepared;  as  likewise,  when  in  1865  at 
his  second  inaugural  scene,  after  four  full  years  of  awful 
war,  he  is  still  found  waiting  in  sacrificial  patience  to  hail 
the  culmination  of  his  assured  interpretation  and  hope. 
Here  in  1865  as  there  in  1858,  there  in  1858  as  here  in 
1865,  he  is  cherishing  the  patriot-prophet's  confidence 
that  the  crisis  would  be  passed,  that  the  Nation  would 
not  be  dissolved,  that  the  house  would  stand. 

And  to  Lincoln's  singular  honor  it  must  always  be  al 
lowed  that  through  all  the  terrible  hours  while  that  crisis 
was  being  passed,  it  wras  pre-eminently  due  to  Lincoln's 
mighty  moral  optimism  that  our  Union  was  preserved. 
Amid  all  the  turbulence  of  armies  and  arms,  his  assurance 
of  our  national  perpetuity  was  so  deeply,  firmly  based,  as 
to  be  itself  invested  and  informed  with  perpetuity.  So 
commanding  was  his  posture  of  heroic,  triumphant  con 
fidence,  that  it  mightily  availed  to  guide  and  steady  the 
Nation  through  the  crisis  into  an  era  of  internal  and 
international  peace. 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  103 

But  not  merely  did  Lincoln's  composure  prevail  to 
secure  that  this  Nation  should  not  dissolve.  It  also 
wrought  prevailingly  to  perpetuate  our  liberty.  Through 
out  the  crisis  the  issue  held  in  stake  was  whether 
the  Nation  should  be  wholly  slave  or  wholly  free.  Those 
were  the  alternatives  between  which  Lincoln's  care 
and  fear,  and  the  Nation's  fortune  and  fate  were  hung. 
Throughout  the  crisis  Lincoln's  hope  was  that  the  Nation 
should  be  forever  wholly  free.  His  fear  was  that  the 
Nation  might  be  wholly  slave.  But  above  that  fear, 
that  hope  steadfastly  prevailed.  One  who  studies  Lin 
coln  through  those  days  comes  to  feel  unerringly  that 
deep  beneath  an  anxiety  that  seemed  at  times  almost  to 
overwhelm  his  life,  there  lay  a  supreme  assurance  that, 
when  the  crisis  should  have  passed,  it  should  stand  clear 
beyond  debate,  and  sure  beyond  all  doubt,  that  here  in 
this  favored  land  the  chance  of  all  the  sons  of  men  should 
be  forever  equal,  fair,  and  free.  Astutely  heedful  of  the 
power  of  selfish,  sordid  greed;  deeply  conscious  of  the 
blind  defiance  of  scorn  and  pride;  painfully  aware  of  the 
awful  capacity  of  a  human  heart  for  cruelty  and  hate;  and 
sharp  to  see  how  reason  yields  to  prejudice,  when  chivalry 
becomes  a  counterfeit;  he  still  found  grounds  to  hold  his 
anchored  hope  for  universal  liberty  and  brotherhood. 

This  deep-based  confidence  deserves  to  be  well  under 
stood.  It  is  a  primary  phenomenon  in  Lincoln's  life. 
How  in  the  deepest  welter  of  violence  and  strife  could 
Lincoln's  mood  retain  such  level  evenness?  How  in  all 
that  continental  turbulence  could  he  keep  so  unper 
turbed?  How,  through  all  that  confusion  was  he  never 
confused?  In  truth  his  days  were  mostly  dark  and  sad. 
Sorrows  did  overwhelm  him.  How  did  his  anchorage 
hold  unchanged?  When  the  very  hills  gave  way,  his 
foundations  seemed  to  stay.  The  assurance  to  which  his 


104  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

soul  was  attached  seemed  all  but  omnipotent.  What  was 
the  secret,  what  the  ground  of  such  phenomenal  steadi 
ness? 

To  answer  these  inquiries  is  but  to  rehearse  again  what 
has  already  been  repeatedly  made  plain.  This  massive 
sturdiness  of  Lincoln's  statesmanship,  this  unalterable 
political  reliability  lay  inwrought  in  the  hardy  fiber  of  his 
moral  character. 

One  factor  here  may  be  termed  intellectual.  Lincoln's 
study  made  him  steady.  His  untiring  thoughtfulness 
secured  to  Lincoln's  soul  a  fine  deposit  of  pure  assurance. 
It  was  with  him  a  jealous  and  guarded  custom  to  make 
examinations  exhaustive.  He  was  always  seeking  cer 
tainty.  Few  men  ever  dealt  more  sparingly  in  conjec 
ture.  Always  eager  towards  the  future,  and  often  mak 
ing  statements  touching  things  to  come,  he  was  neverthe 
less  a  model  of  mental  caution.  It  was  this  passion  to 
make  his  footing  fully  secure  that  kindled  in  him  such 
zest  for  history.  It  was  this  same  passion  that  glowed 
in  his  eye,  as  he  inspected  in  common  men  their  common 
humanity.  And  likewise  it  was  this  that  led  him  into  the 
fear  of  God,  and  made  him  a  student  of  the  Bible,  and  a 
man  of  prayer.  The  full  capacity  of  his  mind  was  taxed 
unceasingly,  in  order  to  secure  to  his  ripening  judgments 
their  majestic  equipoise. 

But  with  saying  this  not  enough  is  said  to  describe  the 
grounds  of  his  composure.  It  was  not  merely  that  his 
mind,  through  thoughtful  inquiry  and  comparison,  grew 
far-sighted,  and  balanced,  and  clear.  What  gained  for 
Lincoln  his  solid  anchorage  was  his  deep,  strong  hold 
upon  all  that  was  inmost  and  permanent  in  the  heart  and 
nature  of  men.  Every  inch  a  man  himself,  the  one  ambi 
tion  of  his  mental  research  was  to  make  every  responsible 
thought  and  deed  conduce  to  guide  every  brother  man 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  105 

to  the  destiny  which  his  nature  decreed.  This  was  the 
research  that  made  his  eye  so  clear.  This  was  the  study 
that  made  his  hope  so  sure.  Outcome  of  unsparing  intel 
lectual  toil,  this  was  the  assurance  that  won  for  Lincoln 
his  unique  and  most  honorable  diploma  and  degree.  This 
was  Lincoln's  standing  and  this  its  warrant  among  all 
thoughtful  men,  alike  the  learned  and  the  unlettered. 
This  was  the  secret  of  that  marvelous  calmness,  that  was 
so  potent  to  compose  the  fears  of  other  men.  He  studied 
man,  until  he  attained  a  magisterial  power  to  understand 
and  explain  result  and  cause,  issue  and  origin,  amid  his 
toric,  surrounding,  and  impending  events.  In  the  field 
where  Lincoln  stood  and  toiled  he  was  an  adept.  He  was 
a  worthy  master  of  the  humanities.  He  took  a  liberal 
course  in  the  liberal  arts.  And  out  of  this  broad  course 
he  constructed  politics.  He  came  to  see  unerringly,  and 
to  believe  unwaveringly,  and  to  contend  unwearyingly 
that  man,  that  all  men  should  hold,  in  a  universal  equilib 
rium,  their  regard  for  God,  their  self-respect,  their  brother 
love,  and  a  true,  comparative  esteem  for  things  that  perish 
and  souls  that  survive.  This  reasoned,  hopeful  faith, 
adopted  with  all  his  heart  as  the  comely  pattern  and  well- 
set  keystone  of  all  his  politics  and  statesmanship,  is  what 
secured  to  Lincoln  through  all  those  tumultuous  days  his 
far-commanding  political  equanimity.  That  all  men 
were  designed  and  entitled  by  their  Creator  to  be  free, 
and  that  in  this  liberty,  as  in  the  elemental  right  to  life 
and  self -earned  happiness,  all  are  likewise  created  equal, 
Lincoln  did  devoutly,  profoundly,  and  invincibly  believe. 
Confirmed  by  all  his  ranging  observation  and  incessant, 
pondering  thought,  this  faith  was  also  rooted  beyond  re 
peal  in  his  own  deep  reverence  for  God,  in  his  own  instinc 
tive  respect  for  himself,  in  irrepressible  friendliness,  and 
in  his  unabashed  idealism. 


106  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

Such  a  man  could  never  be  a  pessimist.  Such  a  faith 
in  such  a  soul  could  not  be  plucked  away.  Nor  could  its 
protestations  be  variable.  That  each,  as  alike  the  handi 
work  of  God,  should  alike  be  always  fair,  and  that  all 
should  always  and  alike  be  free,  was  the  base  of  his  politi 
cal  philosophy,  and  the  bond  of  his  consistency.  This 
was  the  teaching  of  the  past.  This  was  the  harbinger  of 
the  day  to  come.  And  in  this  long-pondered  wisdom  and 
belief  lay  the  explanation  of  his  underlying  peacefulness 
through  the  war,  and  of  his  singular  ability  to  prevail 
above  the  fears  of  other  men,  when  in  other  hearts  every 
hope  gave  way.  He  deeply  saw  that  underneath  all 
battlefields,  and  within  all  antagonisms,  these  simple 
principles,  so  surely  sovereign  and  so  certainly  immortal, 
encompassed  a  breadth  and  strength  sufficient  to  circum 
vent  and  overcome  all  hate  and  doubt  and  fear,  doing  to 
no  freeman  any  vital  harm,  shielding  from  essential  evil 
every  toil-bowed  slave.  This  is  the  source  and  secret  of 
Lincoln's  unexampled  composure  amid  scenes  of  unex 
ampled  anxiety  and  unrest. 

And  this  composure,  being  so  inwrought  with  hope,  was 
unfailingly  active  and  alert.  It  was  never  mere  endurance, 
stolid  and  inert.  It  enshrined  a  powerful  momentum. 
It  was  alive  with  purpose,  conscious,  vigorous,  resolute. 
One  of  its  fairest  features  was  a  seeing  eye — an  eye  trans 
fixed  upon  a  goal.  Things  as  yet  invisible,  and  still  un 
realized,  his  earnest,  unwearying  eye  prevailed  to  see. 
Hence  his  optimism  was  astir  writh  enterprise.  Anticipa 
tion,  quite  as  truly  as  peacefulness,  marked  the  constant 
attitude  of  his  life.  His  composure  could  be  closely  de 
fined  as  confidence  respecting  things  to  come.  Always 
environed  by  difficulties,  and  all  but  blinded  by  their 
strife,  his  faith  struck  through  their  turmoil,  and  his  hope 
rose  free  and  strong  into  a  jubilant  salutation  of  man's 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  107 

undoubted  destiny,  and  into  a  victorious  companionship 
with  God's  clear,  certain  will. 

And  so  there  throbbed  in  this  habitual  posture  of  Lin 
coln's  heart  a  mighty  potency.  His  composure  was  pre 
vailing.  His  deep  and  calm  security  dissipated  other 
men's  dismay.  Repeatedly  beneath  the  presence  of  his 
stately  quietness  the  Nation  felt  its  turbulence  subside. 
This  efficiency  can  be  felt  at  work  in  this  last  inaugural 
address;  and  its  action  well  deserves  to  be  identified.  In 
his  exposition  of  its  theme,  and  in  his  registration  of  his 
presidential  pledge,  he  seems  by  one  hand  to  have  fast 
hold  of  things  immutable,  while  with  the  other  hand  he 
is  helping  to  steady  things  that  tremble  and  change.  Here 
is  kingly  mastery.  Things  mightily  disturbed  are  being 
mightily  put  to  rest,  as  though  from  an  immutable  throne. 
The  open  figure  of  that  throne  may  well  be  scanned  by 
all  the  Nation  and  by  all  the  world.  It  is  built  and  stands 
foursquare.  Its  measure  conforms  in  every  part  with  the 
measure  of  a  man.  It  is  shaped  and  set  to  stand  and 
abide  where  men  consort,  to  unify  their  minds,  and  tran 
quillize  their  strifes.  With  sobered  and  sobering  insight 
into  the  human  soul,  with  resolute  and  expectant  will 
before  our  human  goal,  this  address  inscribes  and  upholds, 
as  at  once  an  outcome  and  an  ideal  of  human  events,  a 
universal  amity  compacted  of  loyal,  friendly  men  who 
walk  in  reverence  before  God,  and  cherish  treasures  that 
can  never  fail.  Purity,  humility,  charity,  loyalty — these 
are  the  constituents  in  the  structure,  and  the  explanation 
of  the  power  of  Lincoln's  composure.  Fully  illumined, 
firmly  convinced,  evenly  at  rest  upon  principles  that  stand 
foursquare  upon  the  balanced  manhood  of  Godlike  men, 
his  civic  hopefulness  stood  in  the  midst  of  his  practical 
statesmanship,  like  an  invincible,  immovable  throne. 


108  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

His  AUTHORITY — THE  PROBLEM  OF  GOVERNMENT 

THE  study  in  the  preceding  chapter  of  Lincoln's  even- 
paced  serenity,  culminating  in  the  symbol  of  a  throne,  con 
ducts  directly  to  an  examination  of  his  influence  and 
mastery  over  other  men.  During  those  troubled  days  in 
Washington,  despite  all  the  malice,  defiance,  and  active 
abuse  which  he  daily  bore,  his  power  to  persuade,  con 
ciliate,  and  govern  other  men  was,  in  all  the  land,  without 
a  parallel.  In  fact,  as  well  as  in  name,  he  was  throughout 
those  presidential  days  the  Nation's  chief  magistrate. 
And  since  his  death  that  dominion  has  increased,  until  it 
stands  today  above  comparison.  Here  is  an  opportunity, 
not  easily  matched,  to  explore  a  theme  whose  importance 
in  the  field  of  ethics  no  other  topic  can  surpass — the  seat 
and  nature  of  moral  authority.  And  here  in  this  second 
inaugural  is  a  transparent  illustration  of  the  firm  security 
in  which  that  authority  rests,  and  of  the  method  by  which 
it  prevails. 

As  in  his  own  inner  reverence  for  law,  so  in  his  sway  of 
other  men,  his  posture  towards  the  national  Constitution 
demands  attention  first. 

"The  supreme  law  of  the  land" — thus  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  in  its  sixth  article,  defines  itself. 
In  its  fifth  article,  the  same  fundamental  document  pro 
vides  that  "Amendments,"  properly  made,  "shall  be 
valid  to  all  intents  and  purposes  as  part  of  this  Constitu 
tion."  This  primary  authority  for  the  rule  of  the  land  is 
further  affirmed  to  have  been  ordained  and  established 
by  "the  people  of  the  United  States."  Here  are  three 
noteworthy  features  of  this  "law  of  the  land:" — it  is 
supreme;  it  is  amendable;  it  arises  from  the  people. 

This  written  standard  of  our  national  life,  its  amendabili- 
ty,  and  its  primal  origin  in  the  people's  will,  were  matters 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  109 

much  in  Lincoln's  eye.  Each  separate  one  of  these  three 
features  of  our  national  civic  life  had  reverent  respect  in 
Lincoln's  mind,  in  all  his  conception  and  exercise  of  author 
ity  over  other  men.  It  was  this  "supreme  law"  that  he 
swore  in  both  inaugurations  to  "preserve,  protect,  and 
defend."  An  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  that  was 
pending  at  the  time  of  his  first  inaugural  oath,  he  took 
unusual  pains  in  that  address  to  mention  and  approve. 
And  it  was  to  "the  people,"  on  both  occasions  of  his  in 
auguration  as  president,  and  at  all  other  times  of  public 
and  responsible  address,  that  he  paid  supreme  respect, 
in  his  most  finished  and  earnest  eloquence  and  appeal. 
Here  was  a  threefold  ultimate  standard  to  which  Lincoln 
always  made  final  appeal — the  original  Constitution;  its 
amenability  to  due  revision;  and  the  people's  free  and 
deliberate  decree.  This  triangular  base-line  was  for 
Lincoln's  politics  and  jurisprudence  and  statesmanship 
the  supreme  and  finished  standard  of  last  appeal.  He 
deferred  to  it  submissively,  habitually,  and  with  reverence. 
All  this  can  be  truly  said.  And  yet  all  this  does  not  say 
all  the  truth.  Respectful  as  Lincoln  was  for  all  that  he 
found  thus  fundamentally  prescribed,  and  heedful  as  he 
was  to  indulge  in  no  executive  liberty  inconsonant  with 
those  express  decrees,  he  found  his  fortune  as  chief  execu 
tive  forcing  him  to  move  where  all  explicit  regulations 
failed  to  specify  the  path.  The  Constitution  does  not 
include  all  details.  It  does  not  vouchsafe  specific  counsel 
for  specific  needs.  Its  guidance  is  as  to  principles.  "No 
foresight  can  anticipate,  nor  any  document  of  reasonable 
length  contain,  express  provisions  for  all  possible  ques 
tions."  This  he  declared  in  his  first  inaugural.  Then 
he  mentions  three  such  unprescribed  details: — the  method 
of  returning  fugitive  slaves;  the  power  of  Congress  to 
prohibit;  and  the  duty  of  Congress  to  protect  slavery  in 


110  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

the  Territories.  Touching  those  three  civic  interests, 
civic  duties  and  civic  standards  were  undirected  and 
undefined.  But  even  while  he  spoke,  those  three  un 
settled  problems  in  the  Nation's  life  were  kindling  the 
national  pulse  to  an  uncontrollable  heat.  Nothing  less 
than  civil  war  was  certainly  impending,  over  controversies 
touching  which  the  sovereign  standards  of  the  civic  life 
did  not  expressly  speak. 

Upon  these  momentous,  undecided  questions  Lincoln, 
in  his  high  authority  as  president,  had  to  bring  his  judg 
ment,  his  action,  and  his  influence  into  settled  shape. 
Deep  in  the  heart  of  these  unsettled  regions  he  set  his 
camp,  and  toiled  away  his  life.  This  heroic  and  patriotic 
act  may  be  called  a  detail  of  constitutional  interpretation. 
But  it  was  for  Lincoln  a  labor  of  Hercules.  It  opened  a 
gigantic  controversy.  The  land  was  convulsed  with  con 
tending  explications.  Views,  held  essential  to  the  vital 
honor  of  separate  sections  of  the  land,  were  in  essential 
hostility.  As  the  dissension  deepened,  two  questions 
rose,  outstanding  above  the  rest: — the  Constitutional 
integrity  of  the  several  States  (might  States  secede?); 
and  the  Constitutional  rights  of  slavery  (should  slavery 
spread?).  Both  these  problems  were  mortally  acute  in 
1861.  Both  were  still  in  hand  in  1865.  Under  the  Con 
stitution  could  the  Union  be  legitimately  dissolved? 
Under  the  Constitution  should  slavery  be  permanently 
approved?  To  both  these  questions  Southern  leaders 
answered,  Yes.  To  both  these  questions  Lincoln  an 
swered,  No. 

Of  these  two  questions  and  asseverations,  it  is  plain  to 
see  that  the  second  is  the  more  profound.  So  this  second 
inaugural  affirms:  "Somehow"  slavery  was  the  cause 
of  the  secession  and  the  war.  This  "all  knew."  Upon 
this  pivot,  all  the  chances  and  contentions  of  the  great 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  111 

debate  were  compelled  to  turn.  Here  lay  all  the  meaning 
of  the  war.  All  those  awful  battles  were  trembling, 
struggling  arguments;  thrilling,  impassioned  affirmations 
striving  to  finally  and  forever  decide  whether  human 
slavery  was  justified  to  spread. 

Here  was  a  supreme  divergence  of  conviction,  and  a 
supreme  debate.  In  all  the  realm  of  social  morals,  no 
divergence  and  no  debate  could  be  more  radical.  Into 
this  supreme  contention  Lincoln  was  compelled  to  enter. 
To  some  conclusion  that  should  be  supreme  he  was,  by 
his  official  station  and  responsibility,  compelled  to  lead. 
To  find  his  way  through  such  a  controversy,  and  to  guide 
the  land  through  all  that  strife  to  some  sovereign  recon 
ciliation,  involved  this  common  citizen  in  the  presidential 
chair  in  an  assumption  and  exercise  of  authority  nothing 
less  than  sovereign. 

Face  to  face  with  this  impending  and  decisive  agony, 
Lincoln  took  his  stand  in  his  first  inaugural,  not  flinching 
even  from  war,  if  war  must  come.  A  mighty  wrestler  in 
the  awful  throes  of  mortal  civic  strife,  he  held  his  deter 
mined  stand  in  the  act  of  his  second  inaugural  oath,  after 
war  had  raged  for  four  full  years.  The  great  debate  is 
unsettled  still.  Still  Lincoln  has  to  bear  the  awful  burden 
of  responsible  advice.  He  is  still  the  Nation's  chief 
magistrate.  An  authority  pregnant  to  predetermine  con 
tinental  issues  for  unnumbered  years  to  come,  however 
dread  its  weight,  and  however  frail  and  faint  his  mortal 
strength,  he  may  not  demit.  Within  the  darkness  and 
amid  the  din,  he  must  think  and  speak,  he  must  judge 
and  act,  he  must  rise  and  lead,  while  a  Nation  and  a  future 
both  too  vast  for  human  eye  to  scan  and  estimate,  stand 
waiting  on  his  word  and  deed. 

It  was  a  time  for  omens.  But  never  did  Lincoln's  ways 
show  fuller  sanity.  In  such  a  day,  and  for  such  a  responsi- 


112  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

bility  this,  his  second  inaugural  address,  is  Lincoln's  per 
fect  vindication.  Here  the  true  civilian's  true  democracy 
stands  vested  with  an  authority  both  sovereign  and 
beautiful.  Here  political  expertness  becomes  consummate. 
Here  the  very  throne  of  civil  authority  is  unveiled.  Here 
leadership  and  fellowship  combine.  Here  a  master, 
though  none  more  modest  in  all  the  land,  demonstrates 
his  mastery  in  the  mighty  field  of  national  politics.  Here 
it  may  be  fully  seen  how  in  a  true  democracy  a  true  domin 
ion  operates. 

Here  emerges,  in  the  ripened,  rugged,  mellowed,  moral 
character  of  Lincoln,  and  in  the  finished,  immortal  formula 
tion  of  his  uttermost  contention  and  appeal,  a  marvelous 
illumination  of  an  inquiry,  that  is  always  alike  the  last 
and  the  first,  the  first  and  the  last  in  ethical  research — the 
inquiry  about  ethical  authority.  Where  did  Lincoln 
finally  rest  his  final  appeal?  He  is  assuming  to  venture  a 
preponderant  claim.  He  is  speaking  as  a  Nation's  presi 
dent.  And  in  a  conflict  of  radical  views  that  for  four 
dread  years  has  been  a  conflict  of  relentless  arms,  he 
argues  still,  and  without  a  quaver,  for  the  thorough  prose 
cution  of  the  war.  Divergence  of  judgment  on  moral 
grounds  could  never  be  brought  to  a  sharper  edge.  Con 
tention  over  issues  in  the  moral  realm  could  never  be 
harder  pressed.  On  what  authority  could  Lincoln  push  a 
moral  argument  unto  blood?  Is  there  moral  warrant  for 
such  a  deed?  If  ever  there  be,  then  where  is  its  base,  and 
whence  its  awful  sanctity? 

To  shape  reply  to  this  is  but  to  shape  more  sharply  still 
the  naked  substance  of  the  debate — the  crying  issue  of 
the  war.  The  core  of  that  insistent  strife  concerned  the 
essential  nature  of  man.  Was  slavery  legitimate?  Might 
a  white  man  enslave  a  black?  Could  a  strong  man  en 
slave  the  weak?  Dare  sonie  men  forswear  toil?  May 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  113 

any  men  who  toil  be  pillaged  of  the  food  their  hands  have 
earned?  Are  some  men  entitled  to  a  luxury  and  ease 
they  never  earned,  while  to  other  men  the  luxury  and  ease 
they  have  fairly  won  may  be  denied?  Are  some  men  so 
inferior  that  they  can  have  no  right  to  life,  and  liberty, 
and  happiness,  however  much  they  strive  and  long  for 
such  a  simple,  common  boon?  Are  other  men  so  super- 
excellent  that  life,  and  liberty,  and  happiness  are  theirs 
by  right,  though  never  earned  or  even  struggled  for  at  all? 

This  was  the  central  issue  of  that  war;  and  this  the 
central  theme  of  this  inaugural.  Are  common  people  to 
be  forever  kept  beneath,  and  traded  on,  and  eyed  with 
scorn;  while  favored  men  are  to  be  forever  set  on  high, 
and  filled  with  wealth,  and  fed  with  flattery?  This  was 
the  quivering  question  that  was  brought  on  Lincoln's 
lips  to  its  sharpest  edge.  Well  he  knew  its  momentous- 
ness  and  its  antiquity. 

In  its  very  formulation,  as  Lincoln  gave  it  shape,  there 
loomed  the  formulation  of  its  reply,  perhaps  still  to  be 
bitterly  defied,  perhaps  to  be  still  long  deferred;  but  in 
evitable  at  last,  and  sure  finally  to  find  agreement  every 
where.  This  final  answer  Lincoln's  vision  saw.  In  that 
clear  vision  he  discerned  the  certain  meaning  of  the  battles 
of  the  war.  In  the  great  debate  they  were  the  solemn, 
measured  arguments.  Amid  those  awful  arguments  this 
inaugural  took  its  place,  the  oracle  of  a  moral  prophet, 
explaining  how  the  war  arose,  by  whose  high  hand  the  war 
was  being  led,  and  in  what  high  issue  the  war  must  attain 
its  end.  As  the  arguments  of  this  address  advance,  one 
grows  to  feel  that  Lincoln's  thought  is  forging  a  reply,  in 
which  emerges  a  moral  law  whose  authority  no  man  may 
ever  dare  rebuke. 

But  as  that  authority  comes  to  view  in  Lincoln's  speech, 
its  form  is  shorn  of  every  shred  of  arrogance.  Never  was 


114  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

mortal  man  more  modest  than  in  the  tone  and  substance 
of  this  address.  This  modesty  is  indeed  throughout 
devoid  of  wavering.  His  tones  ring  with  confidence  and 
decisiveness.  But  in  that  confidence,  though  girt  for  war, 
there  are  folded  signs  of  deference  and  gentleness  and 
solemn  awe,  as  though  confessing  error  and  confronting 
rebuke.  Even  of  slavery,  that  most  palpable  and  ab 
horrent  evil,  as  he  forever  avers;  and  of  slaveholders,  who 
wring  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces,  and 
then  dare  to  pray  for  heaven's  favor  on  their  arms,  he 
says  in  this  address: — "let  us  not  judge  that  we  be  not 
judged;"  as  though  the  germ  of  that  dark  error  might 
then  be  swelling  in  his  and  all  men's  hearts.  And  as  to  the 
war  itself,  for  which  he  bade  the  Nation  stand  with  sword 
full-drawn,  the  central  passage  in  this  speech  more  than 
intimates,  what  in  an  earlier  part  he  fully  concedes,  that 
he  and  all  the  people  had  availed  but  poorly  to  understand 
the  Almighty's  plans.  In  all  of  this  Lincoln  seems  to 
say  that  he  found  himself,  in  common  with  all  the  land, 
but  imperfectly  in  harmony  with  God,  as  to  his  judgment 
concerning  the  sin  inwrought  in  holding  slaves,  and  as  to 
the  primacy  of  the  Union  among  the  interests  pending  in 
the  war.  He  seems  in  this  address,  so  far  from  affirming 
his  right  to  judge  and  govern  arbitrarily,  instead  confessing 
that  love  of  ease,  greed  for  gain,  the  mood  of  scorn,  and 
proneness  to  be  cruel — those  inhuman  roots  that  rear  up 
slavery — were  apt  to  find  hidden  nutriment  in  his  and  all 
men's  hearts,  yielding  everywhere  the  baleful  harvest  of 
inhumanity;  confessing  further  that  this  deep-rooted 
tendency  in  human  hearts  to  undo  God's  primal  decree  of 
freedom  and  equality  was  far  more  needful  to  eradicate 
than  any  proneness  to  secede  within  any  confederacy  of 
States;  and  confessing  in  consequence  and  finally  that  it 
was  for  all  Americans  to  accept  the  war  as  God's  rebuke  of 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  115 

their  common  propensity  to  be  unkind,  and  as  God's  cor 
rection  of  their  false  rating  of  their  national  concerns. 
This  then  seems  to  be  Lincoln's  posture  in  this  address — 
no  lofty  arrogance  of  authority  to  decree  and  execute  the 
right;  but  a  humble  confession  of  error  and  guilt;  an 
acquiescent  submission  to  God's  correction  and  reproof. 
This  modest  hue  must  tincture  this  address  through  all 
its  web. 

And  yet  the  dominant  note  of  this  inaugural  is  clear 
decisiveness,  an  unwavering  firmness  in  his  own  opinion, 
a  classic  illustration  of  persuasion  and  appeal,  as  though 
from  the  vantage  ground  of  convictions  perfectly  assured. 
Where  now,  in  full  view  of  all  that  has  been  said,  is  the 
basis  of  Lincoln's  argument  and  authority  to  be  placed? 
In  an  argument  where  conviction  seems  to  be  transmuted 
into  penitence,  and  where  confession  seems  transfigured 
into  confidence,  how  can  the  logic  be  resolved;  and  where 
at  last  can  the  authority  repose? 

The  full  reply  to  this  inquiry  can  be  found  only  when  we 
find  where  Lincoln's  conviction  and  confession  coalesce. 
Touching  this,  one  thing  is  clear.  Both  bear  upon  the 
same  concern.  Deep  within  them  both  slavery  is  the 
common  theme.  Assured  that  slavery  is  wrong,  he  con 
fesses  that  its  roots  run  everywhere.  Honest  to  the  core, 
he  bows  beneath  the  scourge  of  war,  convinced  that  it  is 
heaven's  penalty  upon  all  the  land.  Throughout  he  is 
pleading  and  suffering  consistently  that  all  men  may  be 
free.  This  is  the  sum  of  the  address.  In  this  it  all  coheres. 
Thus  he  divines  and  understands  the  ways  of  God.  And 
so  he  stands,  as  poised  in  this  address,  in  ideal  fellowship, 
at  once  with  men  who  have  held  slaves,  with  slaves  in 
their  distress,  with  the  Creator  in  his  primal  decree,  and 
with  the  Providential  meaning  of  the  war. 

To  all  this  problem,  vexing  so  many  generations,  the 


116  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

clear  and  witting  touch  of  Lincoln's  sacrificial  penitence 
is  the  master  key.  In  this  all  contradictions,  all  hostilities, 
all  sufferings,  all  transgressions,  and  all  pure  longings  are 
harmonized.  In  assurance  and  repentance  he  has  found 
how  truth  and  grace,  blending  together  in  humble  heed 
for  God  and  for  undying  souls,  hold  complete  dominion 
in  the  moral  realm.  These  pure  principles,  congenial 
alike  to  God  and  men,  he  welcomes  to  himself,  and  com 
mends  to  all  his  fellowmen  in  sacrificial  partnership. 

Here  is  Lincoln's  prevailing  faith.  This  is  the  secret  of 
his  strength.  Herein  vests  his  commanding  and  endur 
ing  power.  This  is  Lincoln's  self — his  very  manhood. 
This  is  the  man  in  this  address  whom  the  world  beheld, 
and  still  beholds — the  man  he  was,  the  man  he  aimed  and 
strove  to  be,  the  man  he  recommended  all  the  Nation  to 
combine  to  reproduce,  the  man  in  whom  the  fear  of  God, 
the  love  of  men,  the  zeal  for  life,  and  true  reliability, 
mingle  evenly,  at  whatever  cost.  This  is  the  man,  and 
this  the  mighty  influence  over  other  men,  enthroned 
imperishably  in  this  address. 

Here  is  the  throne,  the  scepter,  and  the  key  to  Lincoln's 
vast  authority.  It  is  patterned  and  informed  from  the 
cardinal  constituents  of  a  balanced  moral  character.  It 
is  inwrought  within  a  life  that  heeds  harmoniously,  and 
with  heroic  earnestness,  his  own  integrity,  his  God,  his 
fellowman,  and  things  immortal.  Holding  souls  above 
goods,  holding  his  fellow  as  himself,  holding  himself  in 
true  respect,  and  holding  God  above  all,  he  stands  and 
pleads,  with  a  cogency  that  is  unanswerable,  for  verities 
as  self-evident  to  any  man  as  any  man's  self-conscious 
ness.  All  his  claims  in  the  heart  of  this  address  are  self- 
apparent.  They  are  original  convictions.  They  prove 
and  approve  themselves.  They  make  no  call  for  substan 
tiation.  They  confront  every  man  within  himself,  the 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  117 

light  in  his  eye,  the  life  in  his  heart,  the  spring  in  his  hope. 
They  confront  every  man  again  within  his  neighbor. 
They  confront  both  men  again,  when  together  they  look 
up  to  God.  And  far  within  all  forms  that  change,  they 
confront  all  men  forevermore  in  things  that  immortally 
abide. 

This  is  the  truth  to  which  Lincoln  pledged  his  troth, 
and  in  which  he  besought  all  other  men  to  plight  their 
faith,  in  this  address.  The  vivid,  ever-living  dignity  in 
man,  discoverable  by  every  man  within  himself,  to  be 
greeted  by  every  one  in  his  brother-man,  at  once  the 
image  and  the  handiwork  of  God — this  defined  all  his 
faith,  fired  all  his  zeal,  woke  all  his  eloquence,  shaped  all 
his  argument,  winged  all  his  hope.  That  such  a  being 
should  be  a  slave,  that  such  a  being  should  have  a  slave, 
was  in  his  central  conviction,  of  all  wrong  deeds,  the  least 
defensible.  It  was  the  primal  moral  falsity,  cruelty, 
insult,  and  debasement.  That  such  a  sin  should  be  atoned, 
at  whatever  cost,  was  the  primal  task  of  purity,  reverence, 
tenderness,  and  truth.  Holding  such  convictions,  hand 
ling  such  concerns,  for  him  to  make  the  statement  was  to 
give  it  demonstration.  Against  such  convictions,  and  in 
scorn  of  such  concerns,  no  man  could  seriously  contend 
without  assailing  and,  in  the  end,  undoing  himself.  This 
was  the  citadel  and  the  weaponry  of  Lincoln's  authority. 

And  Lincoln  found  within  these  views  the  pledge  of 
permanence.  He  saw  them  bulwarked  and  corroborated 
by  all  the  lessons  and  revelations  of  history.  All  devices 
of  human  society,  contending  against  these  rudimentary 
verities,  had  been  proved  pernicious  and  self-defeating  a 
thousand  times.  Only  such  behavior  of  man  with  man 
as  harmonized  with  the  creative  design,  and  sprang  from 
endowments  that  were  common  to  all,  could  ever  hope  to 
last.  Here  is  the  sovereign  lesson  from  all  the  centuries 


118  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

past,  and  a  sovereign  challenge  for  all  the  centuries  to 
come.  As  Lincoln  viewed  it,  he  was  handling  a  matter 
beyond  debate,  when  he  talked  of  two  centuries  and  a 
half  of  unrequited  toil.  If  that  was  not  wrong,  then 
nothing  was  wrong.  There  is  the  whole  of  Lincoln's  argu 
ment,  and  the  whole  of  his  authority.  It  stood  true  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  It  will  hold  fast  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  hence.  To  deny  this  is  to  dethrone  all 
law,  turn  every  freeman's  highest  boast  to  shame,  and 
finally  banish  moral  order  from  human  government  and 
from  human  thought.  That  this  could  never  be  suffered 
or  confessed  was  the  substance  of  Lincoln's  argument, 
and  the  sum  of  his  authority.  This  and  this  alone  was 
the  sovereign  lesson  that  the  sacrificial  sorrows  of  the 
war  were  searing  so  legibly,  that  all  the  world  could  read, 
upon  the  sinful  Nation's  breast.  And  in  saying  this, 
Lincoln's  voice  was  pleading  as  the  voice  of  God. 

His  VERSATILITY — THE  PROBLEM  OF  MERCY 

THE  study  of  Lincoln's  authority,  as  it  wields  dominion 
in  the  last  inaugural,  has  brought  to  prominence  his  hum 
ble  readiness  to  share  repentantly  with  all  the  Nation,  in 
the  bitter  sorrows  of  the  war,  the  divine  rebuke  for  sin. 
That  sin  was  the  wrong  of  holding  slaves.  But  in  all  the 
land,  if  any  man  was  innocent  of  that  iniquity,  it  was 
Lincoln.  And  yet  the  honest  Lincoln  was  never  more 
sincere,  more  nobly  true  and  honest  with  himself,  than  in 
this  deep-wrought  co-partnership  with  guilt.  Surely  here 
is  call  for  thought. 

Lincoln's  character  was  fertile.  The  principles  that 
governed  his  development  were  living  and  prolific.  In  his 
ethics,  as  in  his  bodily  tissues,  he  was  alive.  As  the  days 
and  years  went  on,  he  grew.  Like  vines  and  trees,  he 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  119 

added  to  his  stature  constantly.  New  twigs  and  tendrils 
were  continually  putting  out,  searching  towards  the  sun 
shine  and  the  springs,  and  embracing  all  the  field.  And 
in  all  this  increase  he  was  supremely  pliable.  While 
always  firm  and  strong,  he  had  a  wonderful  capacity  to 
bend. 

The  primary,  towering  impulse  working  in  Lincoln's 
life  was  ethical.  Amid  the  continual  medley  and  confusion 
of  things,  he  was  continually  reaching  and  searching  to 
find  and  plainly  designate  the  right  and  the  wrong.  This 
stands  evident  everywhere.  Nowhere  does  this  stand 
plainer  than  in  the  period,  when,  at  his  second  inaugural, 
he  faced  a  second  presidential  term.  Still  straining  in  the 
toil  and  turmoil,  in  the  intense  and  blinding  passion  of 
the  war,  he  halts  upon  the  threshold  of  a  second  quadren- 
nium  of  supreme  responsibility,  to  see  if  he  can  surely 
trace  God's  indication  of  what  is  right.  The  eternally 
right  was  what  he  sought.  He  was  after  no  mere  expedi 
ency,  no  ephemeral  shift  for  ephemeral  needs.  The  judg 
ments  of  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  true  and  righteous 
altogether  and  evermore,  were  what  he  prayed  to  find  and 
know.  Then,  if  ever,  Lincoln's  earnestness  was  moral. 

And  for  this  search  at  just  this  time  his  eye  was  peculiar 
ly  sobered  and  grave.  Portentous  problems  were  emerg 
ing,  as  the  finish  of  the  war  drew  near.  And  these  prob 
lems  were  new.  What  should  the  Nation,  when  it  laid 
aside  its  arms,  decide  to  do  with  the  seceded  States,  and 
with  those  millions  of  untutored  slaves?  For  that  no 
precedent  was  at  hand,  no  direction  in  the  laws.  The 
conclusion  must  be  original.  And  it  must  be  supreme. 
And  its  issues  must  hold  wide  sway  for  generations  of 
imperial,  expanding  growth.  There  loomed  an  impend 
ing  peril,  and  a  test  of  statesmanship,  demanding  the 
wisdom,  and  integrity,  and  deep  foresight  of  a  moral 


120  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

prince — a  peril  and  a  moral  test  but  poorly  met  by  the 
men  whom  his  untimely  death  thrust  into  Lincoln's  place. 
For  bringing  to  perfection  his  ripening  judgment  upon 
that  task,  and  so  for  displaying  another  historic  demon 
stration  of  Lincoln's  moral  adaptability,  the  few  short 
requisite  years  were  mysteriously  to  be  denied. 

But  upon  other  problems  and  in  other  days,  there  was 
ample  revelation  of  Lincoln's  agile  moral  strength.  His 
entire  career  in  national  prominence  provides  outstanding 
demonstration  of  the  continual  full  mobility  and  plastic 
freedom  of  his  moral  powers.  The  civil  war,  which  he 
was  conducting  with  such  determination  to  its  predestined 
end,  as  he  stood  the  central  figure  in  this  second  inaugural 
scene,  was  but  the  central  vortex  of  a  moral  agitation  in 
which  all  our  national  principles  and  precedents  were 
challenged  and  defied;  and  in  which  statesmen  of  supreme 
ly  facile,  virile,  moral  sense  were  in  exigent  demand. 
Problems  were  propounded  constantly  upon  which  our 
Constitution  shed  no  certain  light,  and  the  Constitution 
itself  was  in  a  way  to  be  overturned. 

Throughout  this  period  of  national  discord  and  moral 
instability,  Lincoln  was  a  leading,  creative  mind.  The 
circuit  of  that  career  was  brief  indeed,  scarcely  more  than 
one  decade.  But  in  those  dark,  swift  years  shine  and 
cluster  many  illustrations  of  the  rich  and  ready  fertility 
of  his  ethical  postulates  in  the  political  realm.  Man  of 
the  people  though  he  was,  and  acutely  sensitive  of  his 
responsibility  to  the  people  for  every  responsible  act,  he 
was  in  every  judgment  and  resolve  every  inch  a  king, 
openminded,  original,  free.  Again,  and  again,  and  again, 
he  was  the  man  for  the  hour. 

One  demonstration  of  this  is  shown  in  his  surprising 
readiness.  With  whatever  situation,  he  behaved  as 
though  familiar.  Undisciplined  in  diplomacy,  he  proved 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  121 

himself  almost  instantly  a  finished  diplomat.  Totally  un 
tutored  in  all  the  acts  and  practices  of  war,  but  compelled 
by  his  office  to  take  sovereign  command  of  the  Nation's 
arms,  and  that  so  suddenly  that  even  the  arms  themselves 
could  not  be  found,  he  became  one  of  the  foremost  critics 
and  counselors  of  perilous  and  intricate  military  cam 
paigns.  Unaccustomed  to  authority,  but  advanced  at  a 
leap  to  the  Nation's  head,  beleaguered  by  deadly  animosi 
ties  among  cliques  and  sections  and  States,  encompassed 
by  shameless  cabinet  intrigues,  he  developed,  as  in  one 
day,  into  manager,  adviser,  administrator  of  political 
affairs,  the  most  astute  in  all  the  land. 

A  most  impressive  example  of  this  adjustability  is  seen 
in  his  manifold  capacity  for  moral  patience.  It  reveals 
how  he  could  keep  his  full  integrity,  while  binding  up  his 
life  and  fortune  inseparably  with  men  whose  moral  stand 
ards  swayed  far  from  his.  Lincoln's  first  inaugural  gave 
luminous  definition  of  his  designs  and  hopes.  The  princi 
ples  there  propounded  were  the  ripe  and  firm  convictions 
of  a  thoughtful,  honest  life.  They  had  been  pronounced 
repeatedly  before.  To  their  defense  and  consummation 
his  heart  and  honor  were  pledged  irrevocably.  Those 
propositions  were  the  irreducible  rudiments  of  his  faith, 
the  permanent  constituents  of  his  hope.  Surrender  those 
convictions  and  desires  he  never  did,  he  never  could. 
Within  the  ample  compass  and  easy  play  of  those  glowing 
sentiments  there  was  no  room  for  secession,  nor  for  war, 
nor  for  any  bitterness,  but  only  for  loyalty,  fellowship, 
peace.  But  as  he  turned  from  that  inauguration  and  its 
declaration  of  his  policy  toward  the  execution  of  his  trust, 
he  had  to  face  and  handle  secession,  war,  and  malicious 
defamation.  He  had  to  see  the  Nation's  holiest  dignity 
desecrated,  all  his  brotherly  offices  disdained,  the  souls  of 
men  still  held  as  rightful  objects  of  common  trade,  and 


122  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

the  plainest  decrees  of  God  defied.  This  as  shown  in  the 
spirit  and  uprising  of  the  impatient,  imperious  South. 

And  within  the  North,  in  the  very  armies  assembled  for 
the  Union's  defence,  he  had  to  find  the  very  leaders  and 
plotters  of  his  campaigns  absorbed  and  overcome  by 
petty  jealousies,  too  despicable  and  unpatriotic  to  be 
believed,  and  yet  so  real  and  vicious  as  to  defeat  their 
battles  before  they  were  fought.  And  back  among  the 
Union  multitudes  around  his  base,  were  men  of  might  and 
standing,  and  men  in  multitudes,  who  maligned  his  mo 
tives,  and  entangled  his  plans,  until  antagonism  the  most 
malignant  and  resolved  to  all  his  views  and  undertakings 
seemed  to  environ  him  on  every  side. 

To  such  conditions  it  was  Lincoln's  bitter  obligation  to 
conform.  Many  men  were  ready  with  many  fond  pre 
scriptions  for  the  case;  but  they  all  were  marked  by  weak 
futility.  They  either  brought  the  Nation  no  complete 
relief,  or  else  surrendered  the  Nation's  very  life.  Within 
the  strain  and  pull  from  every  side  Lincoln  felt  the  obliga 
tion  of  his  oath. 

The  mood  and  method  he  employed  (and  let  not  the 
phrase  be  misunderstood)  was  moral  relaxation.  This  did 
not  mean  that  he  altered  aught  of  his  pronounced  belief, 
or  varied  by  a  single  hair  from  his  announced  design. 
He  remembered  his  inaugural  oath.  He  retained  his 
faith  and  hope,  and  held  to  his  prime  resolve  unchanged. 
But  he  gave  the  opposition  time.  He  suffered  malignant s 
to  malign,  seceders  to  rebel,  detractors  to  impugn;  and  bore 
their  taunts  and  blows  and  wounds  patiently,  still  abiding 
by  his  word.  His  very  war  was  simply  for  defense.  The 
honor  of  the  Union  he  would  not  yield  up.  His  brotherly 
friendliness  he  would  not  forego.  His  rating  of  freemen 
he  would  not  discount.  The  mandates  of  God  he  would 
not  disobey.  But  while  on  every  hand  these  might  be 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  123 

assailed  and  abjured,  he  repressed  all  violence  and  vehe 
mence  of  heart,  and  endured,  and  indulged,  and  was  still. 

Herein,  however,  his  convictions  and  hopes  wore  a 
modified  guise.  Their  rigor  softened;  their  lustre  mel 
lowed;  their  angles  broadened;  their  rudeness  ripened; 
and  his  aspect  passed  through  change;  the  while  his  honor 
brightened  and  became  more  clear.  This  adjustment  of 
such  a  nature  to  such  a  fate  is  a  massive  illustration  of 
moral  versatility.  It  is  like  keeping  the  steed  to  the 
course,  while  yet  laying  the  rein  upon  his  neck. 

Through  experience  such  as  this  it  must  have  been  that 
Lincoln  traversed  his  profoundest  sorrow.  Just  here  his 
critics  and  traducers  had  their  firmest  hold.  To  the  world 
at  large  his  tactics  did  seem  slack,  his  method  dilatory,  his 
mood  indifferent.  Men  wearied  past  endurance  at  his 
delay,  and  charged  repeatedly  that  he  had  betrayed  his 
trust.  Such  accusations  must  have  been  to  his  pure 
loyalty  like  gall.  And  yet  he  must  perforce  be  mute.  It 
was  not  he,  it  was  the  awful  situation  in  which  his  noble 
life  was  manacled,  that  was  so  incorrigible.  With  God  and 
man  he  pleaded  day  and  night  that  bloodshed  might  be 
stayed,  and  peace  possess  the  land.  But  an  enemy  was 
in  the  land,  determined  not  to  leave  his  guns  until  the 
Union  was  dissolved,  and  slavery  vindicated  as  right. 
Rather  than  forsake  the  Union,  and  own  that  men  were  as 
the  brutes,  he  would  die  a  thousand  times.  And  with  a 
patience  that  no  malice  and  no  misfortune  could  wear 
away,  he  held  his  post  and  kept  his  word,  through  tor 
ments  too  severe  for  unheroic  men  to  bear,  producing  thus 
upon  his  silent,  sorrowful  face  a  humble  replica  of  the 
divine  long-suffering  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Christ.  And 
so  he  taught  the  world  how  in  patience  the  righteousness 
that  abhors  all  wrong  may  turn  its  face  toward  sin  with 
humble  meekness,  through  years  that  seem  like  centuries, 


124  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

and  cause  thereby  that  pure  and  Godlike  truth  and  love 
shall  only  be  more  glorious. 

But  even  with  this  the  description  of  this  case  stands 
incomplete.  To  understand  it  rightly  further  statements 
are  required.  After  all  his  patience,  the  South  was  ob 
durate.  Even  while  in  this  last  inaugural  Lincoln  was 
pleading  for  universal  charity,  and  seeking  to  banish 
malice  everywhere,  the  leaders  of  the  armies  in  the  South 
were  rallying  their  unrecruited  ranks  in  a  very  desperation 
of  hatred  for  his  principles,  and  of  scorn  for  his  forbearance. 
While  he  was  interpreting  the  desolations  and  sorrows  of 
the  war  as  God's  all-powerful  punishment  of  slavery,  our 
common  national  sin,  they  resented  with  impassioned 
vehemence  such  an  explanation,  disclaimed  all  guilt,  and 
denied  that  slavery  wras  wrong. 

Here  emerged  in  Lincoln's  thought  Lincoln's  supreme 
perplexity.  He  was  dealing  with  right  and  wrong,  both 
only  the  more  intensely  real,  because  so  really  concrete. 
Liberty  and  loyalty,  loyalty  to  liberty,  the  dignity  of  man, 
and  the  good  pleasure  of  God — these  were  the  eternal 
principles,  and  the  personal  interests  at  stake.  Antago 
nisms  were  deadly  virulent;  and  they  were  unrelenting. 
Compulsion  was  not  availing.  Patience  likewise  failed. 
Here  was  a  desperate  call  for  moral  mastership.  The  man 
to  meet  the  crisis,  to  join  the  cleft,  to  reduce  to  moral 
harmony  this  discord  of  right  and  wrong,  the  man  who 
could  resolve  and  morally  unify  this  moral  disagreement 
must  have  a  soul  and  an  understanding  whose  insight  and 
moral  comprehension  were  complete. 

Here  Lincoln's  moral  grandeur  gains  its  full  dimension. 
And  in  this  consummation  it  comes  clear  to  see  how  in 
very  deed  right  and  wrong,  evil  and  good,  can  be  encom 
passed  in  a  moral  unison  such  that  evil  remains  the  all- 
abhorrent  thing,  and  good  is  proved  to  be  alone  desired. 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  125 

This  marvelous  explication  is  found  within  the  words  and 
tone  of  this  last  inaugural.  It  stands  contained  in  perfect 
poise  within  the  mutual  balancings  of  his  princely  pledge 
to  abjure  all  malice,  show  universal  charity,  and  still 
pursue  the  awful  guidance  of  Almighty  God  in  the  prose 
cution  of  the  war.  Herein  moral  rigor,  forbearance,  and 
gentleness  do  majestically  coalesce. 

The  breath  and  voice  of  this  same  moral  mystery  are 
felt  and  heard  again  within  this  same  inaugural  in  that 
bold  prophetic  exposition  of  the  Providential  purport  of 
the  war.  In  the  burning  furnace  of  those  last  four  years, 
Lincoln's  eyes  had  been  purged  to  see  how  the  ways  of 
God  transcend  the  ways  and  thoughts  of  men.  Both 
North  and  South,  in  battle  and  in  prayer,  had  failed  to 
comprehend  the  thoughts  of  God.  All  the  movements  of 
all  their  armies  were  being  mightily  over-ruled.  The 
purposes  of  the  Almighty  were  his  own.  Both  North  and 
South  had  gone  astray.  Neither  side  was  wholly  right. 
The  land  was  under  discipline.  The  Nation  had  commit 
ted  sin.  That  sin  was  destined  for  requital.  That  requital 
was  to  be  complete.  The  ways  of  God  were  true  and 
righteous  altogether.  All  this  the  Nation  must  acquies 
cently  confess.  For  all  the  wrong  of  slavery  requital 
must  be  made,  submissively,  ungrudgingly,  repentantly. 
Beneath  that  judgment  every  heart  must  bow.  The  sin 
must  be  abjured.  Its  wrong  must  be  abhorred.  Good 
will  to  all  alike  must  be  restored.  And  through  it  all  the 
Almighty  must  be  adored. 

Like  a  solemn  litany  within  a  great  cathedral,  these 
solemn  sentiments  of  Lincoln  resounded  through  the  land, 
as,  in  want  of  any  other  priest,  Lincoln  himself  led  the 
Nation  to  the  altar  of  the  Lord.  He  truly  led.  And  to 
an  altar.  In  this  inaugural,  Lincoln,  for  all  Americans, 
bows  and  veils  his  own  brave  heart  in  sacrificial  sorrow  and 


126  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

confession,  to  bear  and  suffer  all  that,  as  the  Nation's  due, 
and  for  the  Nation's  rescue,  it  is  the  will  of  holy  heaven  to 
inflict. 

In  this  profound,  spontaneous  assumption  of  full  co 
partnership  with  all  the  Nation  in  a  Nation's  undivided 
ill-desert;  in  this  uncomplaining  acquiescence,  while  God 
inflicted  upon  the  land,  as  an  awful  scourge,  all  the  shame 
and  cost  and  sorrow  that  the  woful  wrong  of  slavery  had 
entailed;  in  this  deep  discernment  that  deep  in  every  heart 
ran  and  flourished  all  the  baleful  roots  of  greed  and  pride, 
of  injustice  and  cruelty,  out  from  which  all  man's  en- 
bondagement  of  brother  man  springs  up;  in  this  estima 
tion  of  human  slavery  as  a  primary  sin,  while  receiving 
without  repining  its  ultimate  doom — Lincoln  unveils  in 
his  single  heart,  an  abhorrence  and  an  endurance  of  our 
national  sin,  that  makes  him  enduringly  and  indivisibly 
the  friend  and  brother  of  us  all,  accomplishing,  in  a  single 
moral  experience,  the  pattern  of  the  confession,  and  of 
the  resolution  of  our  common  wrong.  Unto  this,  Lin 
coln's  moral  versatility  attained.  Beyond  this,  moral 
versatility  could  never  go. 

The  same  moral  dextrousness,  this  facile  power  and 
fluent  readiness  to  fully  comprehend  and  fitly  meet  the 
moral  mastery  of  a  problem,  in  itself  all  but  absolutely 
obstinate  and  impossible,  this  wondrous  deftness  in  com 
pounding  together  guilt  and  grace  in  mutual  compassion 
and  repentance,  is  shown  in  Lincoln's  patiently  repeated, 
but  always  futile  efforts  to  persuade  the  North  and  the 
South  to  come  together,  and  so  bring  slavery  and  all 
dissension  to  an  end,  by  giving  and  receiving  fiscal  reim 
bursement  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  To  this 
magnanimous  and  unexampled  proposition,  offered  in  the 
midst  of  war,  and  urged  in  words  and  tones  of  classic  win- 
someness,  the  North  and  South  could  never  be  brought 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  127 

unitedly  to  consent.  Therein  this  moral  hero  stood  like  a 
king  against  the  wrong,  argued  like  a  prophet  for  the  right, 
and  led  towards  mutual  penitence  and  sacrifice  like  a 
priest.  It  is  in  human  history  one  of  the  supremest  illus 
trations  of  moral  versatility.  Never  were  Lincoln's  char 
acter  and  aim  more  stable  than  in  that  plea.  But  never 
was  mortal  man  more  mobile.  Beyond  all  his  contempora 
ries  he  observed  and  regarded  the  signs  of  the  times.  He 
saw  that  the  ancient  order  was  certainly  to  change.  He 
felt  that  an  almighty,  a  just,  and  a  benignant  Providence 
had  assumed  control.  He  discerned  that  the  new  order 
was  freighted  with  vast  store  of  good.  To  make  its  en 
trance  gentle,  so  that  nothing  should  be  rent  or  wrecked, 
was  the  sum  of  all  his  thought  and  toil.  He  took  for 
pattern  the  coming  of  the  dew.  For  his  method  he  adopt 
ed  his  own  well-mastered  and  transcendent  art  of  brotherly 
persuasion.  As  to  manner,  he  was  vestured  in  humility, 
desiring  to  eject  and  ban  the  pharisee  from  his  own  and 
all  other  hearts.  For  prevailing  motive  he  designated  the 
passing  hour  as  a  time  of  unexampled  opportunity.  "So 
much  good,"  he  said,  "has  not  been  done  by  one  effort  in 
all  past  time,  as  in  the  Providence  of  God  it  is  now  your 
high  privilege  to  do. "  And  for  admonition  he  pointed  to 
the  vastness  of  the  future,  and  a  possible  lament  over  a 
pitiful  neglect.  But  it  was  all  for  naught.  For  such  a 
moral  transmutation  and  free  triumph  the  embattled 
Nation  was  unprepared. 

But  over  against  that  unrelenting  rigor,  his  moral  readi 
ness  to  meet  his  brother,  friend  or  foe,  in  free  and  mutual 
sacrifice,  glows  beautifully.  Deep  in  the  heart  of  his 
design  was  struggling  heroically,  and  in  balanced  moral 
unison,  the  Godlike  spirit  of  eternal  justice,  mercy,  and 
conciliation.  In  his  strong  breast  all  pride  was  crucified, 
malice  was  melted  down  to  tenderness,  hypocrisy  and 


128  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

sordidness  were  purged  away.  His  moral  outlook  was 
now  unobstructed,  open  every  way.  Then  his  soul  stood 
fleet  and  free  for  any  path  within  the  moral  universe. 
With  every  man  in  this  broad  land  he  stood  ready  to 
journey  or  sojourn,  meek  to  suffer,  resolute  to  prevail. 
Sharing  with  the  wrongdoer  and  the  wronged  alike  their 
shame  and  suffering  and  sin,  while  urging  with  immortal 
eagerness  towards  fairness  and  happiness  and  peace,  he 
resolved  and  overcame  the  problem  of  the  slaveholder 
and  the  slave,  and  made  this  land  forever  the  universal 
refuge  of  the  free.  In  such  a  transmutation,  first  within 
himself,  and  then  throughout  the  land,  moral  as  it  is  in 
every  fiber,  and  from  circumference  to  core,  is  perfect 
moral  concord.  Thus,  in  moral  discord,  moral  freedom 
finds  the  way  to  peace,  while  full  responsibility  remains 
unchangeably  supreme.  Here  is  the  final,  perfect  triumph 
of  moral  ingenuity.  Thus  by  means  of  mercy,  freely 
offered  and  freely  received,  through  mutual  fellowship  in 
moral  suffering,  wrong  may  be  comprehended,  and  fully 
overcome,  in  the  unchanged  dominion  of  the  right.  So 
moral  freedom  and  moral  consistency  combine.  Men's 
lives  become  vicarious.  Thus  moral  versatility  culmi 
nates,  and  overcomes,  and  wins  the  sovereign  moral 
crown. 

His  PATIENCE — THE  PROBLEM  OF  MEEKNESS 

IN  the  chapter  just  preceding,  Lincoln's  patience  came 
into  allusion  and  review.  That  quality  deserves  a  some 
what  closer,  separate  examination.  When  Lincoln  took 
his  last  inaugural  oath,  he  based  its  meaning  upon  a  state 
ment  in  his  inaugural  address,  that  all  the  havoc  of  the 
war  was,  under  God,  a  penalty  and  atonement  for  a  wrong 
that  had  been  inflicted  and  endured  for  centuries.  In  this 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  129 

interpretation  he  subtly  interwove  a  pleading  intimation 
that  all  the  land,  in  reverent  acquiescence  with  the  right 
eous  rule  of  God,  should  meekly  bow  together  to  bear 
the  awful  sacrifice.  And,  deep  within  this  open  exposi 
tion  of  his  prophetic  thought,  there  gleamed  the  hidden 
pledge,  inherent  in  his  undiluted  honesty,  that  he  himself 
would  not  decline,  but  would  rather  stand  the  first,  to  bear 
all  the  sorrow  consequent  upon  such  wrong. 

Here  is  an  attitude,  and  here  a  proposition  which  men 
and  Nations  are  forever  prone  to  scorn;  but  which  all 
Nations  and  all  men  will  be  compelled  or  constrained  at 
last  to  heed.  Therein  are  published  and  enacted  verities, 
than  which  none  known  to  men  are  more  profound,  or 
vast,  or  vested  with  a  higher  dignity.  They  demand 
attention  here. 

The  statement  made  by  Lincoln  pivots  on  "offenses." 
Strong  men,  in  pride  and  arrogance  of  strength,  had 
wronged  the  weak.  Weak  men,  in  the  lowliness  and  im 
potence  of  their  poverty,  had  borne  the  wrong.  In  such 
conditions  of  painful  moral  strain  the  centuries  had  multi 
plied.  Those  long-drawn  years  of  violence  had  heightened 
insolence  into  a  defiance  all  but  absolute.  Those  self 
same  years  of  suffering  had  deepened  ignominy  into  all 
but  absolute  despair.  Through  banishment  of  equity  and 
charity,  of  purity  and  humility,  while  all  the  heavenly 
oracles  seemed  mute,  fear  and  hope  alike  seemed  paralyzed. 
The  oppressor  seemed  to  have  forgotten  his  eternal  obliga 
tion  to  be  kind  and  fair.  The  oppressed  seemed  to  have 
surrendered  finally  his  God-like  dignity.  The  times 
seemed  irreversible. 

Here  is  a  problem  that,  while  ever  mocking  human 
wisdom,  refuses  to  be  mocked.  It  enfolds  a  wrong,  un 
doubted  moral  wrong;  else  naught  is  right.  It  overwhelms. 
Within  its  awful  deeps  multitudes  have  been  submerged. 


130  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

And  it  is  unrelieved.  It  outwears  the  protests  and  ap 
peals  of  total  generations  of  unhelped,  indignant  hearts. 

This  problem  Lincoln  undertook  to  understand.  In 
his  conclusion  was  proclaimed  the  vindication  of  the  meek. 
Beneath  that  age-long  wrong,  beneath  the  silence  and  de 
lay  of  God,  and  beneath  the  final  recompense,  he  prevailed 
upon  his  heart,  and  pleaded  with  other  hearts  to  stand  in 
suffering,  hopeful  acquiescence.  Among  these  sorrows, 
so  wickedly  inflicted,  without  relief,  and  without  rebuke, 
let  patience  be  perfected.  Here  let  meekness  grow  mature. 
Let  confidence  in  our  equal  and  unconquered  manhood, 
and  let  faith  in  God  not  fail  to  overcome  all  Godlessness 
and  inhumanity.  Let  time  be  trusted  absolutely  to  prove 
all  wrong  iniquitous.  Let  the  worth  inherent  in  undying 
souls  be  shown  to  be  indeed  immortal. 

Here  is  Lincoln's  resolution  of  this  profound  enigma, 
a  resolution  unfolding  all  its  mystery,  and  involving  all 
his  character.  Here  Lincoln  won  his  crown.  This  is  all 
his  meaning  in  abjuring  malice,  and  invoking  charity. 
Too  kindly  to  indulge  resentment,  whatever  the  provoca 
tion,  and  too  sensible  of  his  own  integrity  to  ever  court 
despair,  he  appealed  to  God's  eternal  justice  and  compas 
sion,  and  clung  to  a  hope  that  no  anguish  or  delay  could 
overcome.  This  is  Lincoln's  patience.  This  is  the  in 
most  secret  of  his  moral  strength.  This  is  his  piercing  and 
triumphant  demonstration  that  in  this  troubled  world, 
where  sin  so  much  abounds,  it  is  the  meek  who  shall  finally 
prevail. 

This  moral  patience  deserves  to  be  explored.  It  com 
prehends  ingredients,  quite  as  worthy  to  be  kept  distinct, 
as  to  be  seen  in  unison.  For  one  thing  it  identified  him 
with  slaves.  Therein  he  bore  a  grave  reproach.  Its 
weight  only  he  himself  could  rightly  compute.  Beneath 
the  rude  and  among  the  hurt  he  took  deliberate  stand. 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  131 

Among  the  lowly,  before  the  scorner,  he  held  his  place. 
He  braved  the  master's  taunts.  He  penetrated  to  its 
heart  the  cause  that  kept  the  black  man  mute.  He 
measured  out,  but  without  indifference,  as  without  com 
plaint,  the  divine  delay.  He  courted  in  his  thought  on 
slavery  a  perfect  consciousness  of  its  sin.  He  examined 
with  nicest  carefulness  the  sufferers'  impulse  towards  re 
venge.  He  knew  the  awful  misery  in  human  shame.  He 
shared  with  honest  men  their  proudest  aspirations.  And 
all  of  this,  he  shared  with  blacks,  not  by  compulsion,  but 
as  a  volunteer. 

Herein,  and  in  the  second  place,  he  held  fast  the  funda 
mental  claims  that  every  slave  retained  an  ineffaceable 
affinity  with  God;  that  this  divine  inheritance,  however 
deep  the  negro's  poverty,  could  never  be  annulled  or  for 
feited;  that  friendliness  with  fellowmen,  however  hard  or 
sad  their  lot,  was  no  reproach;  that  in  human  sorrows  it 
well  becometh  human  hearts,  as  it  becometh  God,  to 
remember  to  be  pitiful;  that  all  invasion  or  neglect  of 
those  inherent  human  rights  and  dignities  was  bound  to 
be  avenged;  that  in  God's  good  time  all  patient  souls 
would  be  crowned  with  song;  and  that  thus  his  open 
championship  of  the  cause  of  slaves  was  in  perfect  keeping 
with  his  own  unaltered  and  unalterable  self-respect. 

A  third  ingredient  in  Lincoln's  patience  was  its  con 
spicuous  and  inseparable  impeachment  of  oppression. 
Lincoln's  patience  under  moral  wrong  made  him  no  neutral 
morally.  Without  fear  and  without  reserve,  he  held 
before  oppressors,  however  hard  or  strong,  the  enormity 
of  their  .vrong.  Before  the  cruel  their  cruelty  was  dis 
played.  Before  the  arrogant  their  arrogance  was  re 
flected  back.  Before  the  base  and  foul  their  sordidness 
was  brought  to  light.  Before  disloyal  men  the  perfidy  of 
covenant  disloyalty  was  nakedly  unveiled.  All  the  wrongs 


132  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

inwrought  and  undergone  in  slavery  were  recited  with 
insistent  accuracy  and  unreserve.  Of  all  those  centuries 
of  unpaid  toil  each  month  and  year  wrere  reckoned  up. 
Of  all  those  sins  against  pure  womanhood  and  helpless 
infancy  each  tell-tale  face  was  told  numerically.  The 
moral  wrong  in  slavery  was  set  before  its  advocates  and 
beneficiaries  unsparingly.  Patience,  whether  God's  or 
man's,  and  whether  for  one  day  or  for  a  thousand  years, 
can  never  be  interpreted  or  understood  to  diminish  sin's 
iniquity.  Its  prolonged  persistence  only  aggravates  its 
guilt. 

In  the  fourth  place,  there  was  in  Lincoln's  patience 
a  waiting  deference  before  God's  silence  and  delay.  His 
total  confidence  was  in  God.  That  God  was  negligent, 
or  indifferent,  he  would  not  concede.  His  whole  abhor 
rence  of  oppression  was  based  on  God's  decree.  Here 
rested  also  all  his  hope  of  recompense.  Vengeance  be 
longs  to  God.  He  will  rebuke  the  mighty,  and  redeem 
the  meek.  In  both,  his  righteousness  will  be  complete. 
And  when  his  judgments  fall,  all  men  must  own  adoringly 
his  perfect  equity. 

Finally,  in  Lincoln's  patience  there  is  explicit  recogni 
tion  and  confession  of  his  own  complicity  with  all  the 
land,  in  the  wrong  to  slaves,  and  of  his  own  and  all  the 
land's  delinquency  before  the  Lord,  in  failure  to  discern 
and  approbate  the  divine  designs.  It  had  been  left  with 
God's  far  greater  patience  and  far  higher  moral  jealousy 
to  overcome  and  overwhelm  and  overrule  the  devious 
plans  and  ways  of  erring  men.  In  lowly  acquiescence  it 
was  for  him  and  the  land  to  acquaint  themselves  with 
God's  designs,  confess  their  wanderings,  accept  his  will 
alike  in  redemption  and  rebuke,  and  unite  henceforth  to 
represent  and  praise  on  earth  his  perfect  equity  and  grace. 

Here  are  the  elements  in  Lincoln's  patience,  and  here 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  133 

their  sum.  Forming  with  the  lowly  and  oppressed  a  free 
and  intimate  partnership;  avowing  jealously  for  all  man 
kind  a  coequal  dignity  among  themselves  and  an  im 
perishable  affinity  with  God;  declaring  unflinchingly  to 
all  who  tyrannize  the  full  enormity  of  their  primal  sin; 
restraining  malice  and  all  avenging  deeds;  confessing  his 
own  misjudgments  and  misdeeds  among  his  fellowmen 
and  before  the  Lord;  he  endures  submissively  the  divine 
delays,  and  shares  repentantly  with  all  who  sin  the  judg 
ments  of  a  perfect  righteousness.  Genuinely  pitiful  for 
suffering  men,  sharply  jealous  for  human  worth,  direct  as 
light  to  designate  the  shame  in  pride,  docile  as  a  child 
before  the  righteous  and  eternal  rule  of  God,  he  illustrates 
and  demonstrates  how  a  perfect  patience  makes  requisi 
tion  in  a  noble  man  of  all  his  noblest  manliness. 

But  worthy  as  are  all  its  qualities,  its  exercise  entails 
stern  discipline  in  suffering.  It  costs  a  man  his  life. 
That  this  was  Lincoln's  understanding,  as  he  traversed 
the  responsibility  of  that  last  inauguration  day,  is  wit 
nessed  unmistakably  by  his  letter  to  Thurlow  Weed  re 
specting  his  inaugural  address.  These  are  his  words,  well 
worthy  to  be  reproduced  a  second  time : — 

"I  believe  it  (the  address)  is  not  immediately  popular. 
Men  are  not  flattered  by  being  shown  that  there  has  been 
a  difference  of  purpose  between  the  Almighty  and  them. 
To  deny  it,  however,  in  this  case,  is  to  deny  that  there  is  a 
God  governing  the  world.  It  is  a  truth  which  I  thought 
needed  to  be  told,  and,  as  whatever  of  humiliation  there 
is  in  it  falls  most  directly  on  myself,  I  thought  others  might 
afford  for  me  to  tell  it. " 

"Most  directly  on  myself."  There  Lincoln  bares  his 
heart  to  God  and  man,  in  order  that  upon  himself  might 
fall  the  first,  the  deepest,  and  the  most  direct  humiliation 
At  one  with  slaves,  despised  by  pride,  astray  from  God 


134  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

prepared  for  sacrifice — but  attesting  still  that  slaves  were 
men,  that  robbery  was  wrong,  that  God  was  just — so  he 
stands. 

But,  be  it  said  again  and  yet  again,  in  such  a  posture 
looms  nobility.  In  meekness  such  as  this  is  nothing  cra 
ven.  It  beseems  true  royalty.  Bowing  before  his  God 
to  receive  rebuke,  bowing  to  make  confession  before  his 
fellowmen,  he  stands  as  on  a  hilltop,  announcing  and  de 
claring  to  all  the  world  how  arrogance  proves  men  base, 
how  lowliness  may  be  beautiful,  how  reverend  are  God's 
mysteries,  how  just  and  pitiful  his  ways.  Here  is  a  king- 
liness  that  no  crown  can  rightly  symbolize.  Here  is  a 
victory  that  is  not  won  with  swords.  In  the  very  attitude 
is  final  triumph.  It  bravely  claims,  and  truly  overcomes 
the  world.  In  such  a  patience  there  is  present  instantly, 
and  in  full  possession,  the  vigor  of  undying  hope,  and  the 
title  of  a  firstborn  son  to  the  heritage  of  the  earth. 

This  capacity  in  Lincoln's  patience  for  the  close  alle 
giance  of  self-devotion  and  self-respect,  of  sympathy  and 
jealousy,  is  shown  dramatically  in  his  tournament  with 
Douglas  in  1858.  Throughout  those  speeches,  replies, 
and  rejoinders  Lincoln  held  fast  his  full  fraternity  with 
the  slaves,  while  repressing  with  his  fullest  vigor  every 
onslaught  against  his  personal  integrity. 

The  date  of  those  debates  marked  over  four  full  years, 
since  Douglas  had  championed  through  Congress  into 
finished  legislation  a  bill  that  abrogated  all  federal  limita 
tion  of  slavery,  and  opened  an  unrestricted  possibility  of 
its  further  spread  forever,  wherever  any  local  interest 
might  so  desire.  That  bill  obtained  the  presidential  signa 
ture  in  May  of  1854.  During  the  succeeding  years  Doug 
las  had  been  shaping  public  sentiment  by  his  almost  royal 
influence  in  public  speech  towards  a  stereotyped  acceptance 
of  the  principles  and  implications  of  that  law.  Under  his 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  135 

aggressive  leadership  his  party  had  been  well  solidified 
upon  three  political  postulates,  which  he  declared  essential 
not  alone  to  party  fealty,  but  to  any  permanent  national 
peace.  These  three  postulates  were  the  following: — 

Slavery  is  in  no  sense  wrong. 

Slavery  is  to  be  treated  as  a  local  interest  only. 

These  principles  have  been  sanctioned  perfectly  by 
history. 

From  these  fundamental  postulates  flowed  numerous 
corollaries : — 

Black  men  are  an  inferior  race.  This  inferiority  has 
been  stamped  upon  this  race  indelibly  by  God.  The 
Declaration  of  Independence  did  not  and  does  not  include 
the  blacks  in  its  affirmations  about  equality. 

This  country  contains  vast  sections  precisely  fitted  to  be 
occupied  by  slavery. 

Local  interests  being  essentially  diverse,  as  for  example 
between  Alabama  and  Maine,  decisions  as  to  local  affairs 
will  also  be  diverse.  This  entails  divergent  treatment  of 
black  men,  just  as  of  herds  and  crops. 

To  the  rights  of  stronger  races  to  enslave  the  blacks, 
the  fathers  who  framed  our  government,  our  national 
history  since,  and  the  age-long  fate  of  Africa  unitedly 
bear  witness. 

Counter  to  these  three  major  postulates  of  Douglas, 
Lincoln  set  the  following  three : — 

The  enslavement  of  men  is  wrong. 

The  treatment  of  slavery  is  a  federal  concern. 

Our  history  has  contained,  and  still  contains  a  com 
promise.  Our  fathers  deemed  slavery  a  wrong.  But 
finding  it  present  when  they  framed  our  government,  and 
finding  its  removal  impossible  at  the  time,  they  arranged 
for  its  territorial  limitation,  for  its  gradual  diminishment, 
and  for  its  ultimate  termination. 


136  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

From  these  three  fundamental  postulates  in  Lincoln's 
arguments  flowed  also  various  corollaries: — 

The  sinfulness  of  slavery  roots  in  the  elemental  manhood 
of  the  slave.  This  manhood  warrants  his  elemental  claim 
to  the  employment  and  enjoyment  of  his  life  in  liberty. 

In  our  form  of  government,  things  local  and  things  federal 
being  held  within  their  respective  realms  respectively 
supreme,  things  locally  divergent  lead  to  federal  com 
promise. 

Certain  sections  of  the  country  in  particular,  and  the 
Nation  in  general  being  committed,  either  from  policy  or 
from  choice,  to  foster  slavery;  men  who  hate  the  thing  as 
wrong  must  in  patient  meekness  endure  its  presence,  until 
in  God's  own  time  its  presence  and  its  sin  and  guilt  shall 
be  removed. 

As  will  be  seen  at  once,  for  the  purposes  of  a  popular 
debate,  the  postulates  of  Douglas  were  easier  to  defend. 
Of  the  two  sets  of  premises,  his  seemed  the  more  simple, 
more  explicit,  more  direct,  more  telling  with  a  crowd; 
while  those  of  Lincoln,  by  reason  of  that  moral  and  histori 
cal  compromise,  seemed  more  confused,  more  evasive,  and 
not  so  apt  to  take  the  multitude.  In  the  nature  of  the 
debate  Lincoln  had  to  shape  his  propositions  and  replies 
to  face  two  ways: — towards  the  practical  emergencies  of 
our  history  and  form  of  government,  on  the  one  hand; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  towards  an  ideal  nowhere  yet 
attained,  and  seemingly  unattainable.  Whereas  Douglas, 
quite  unconcerned  about  any  ideal  motives  in  the  past, 
as  of  any  vision  of  an  ideal  day  to  come,  but  dealing  solely 
with  the  political  situation  that  day  occurrent,  could  make 
every  affirmation  and  every  thrust  against  his  adversary 
seem  straight,  and  clear,  and  impossible  to  refute.  This 
very  practical  and  substantial  disadvantage  Lincoln  had 
to  bear.  Questions  that  Douglas  would  answer  decisively, 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  137 

and  instantly,  and  with  absolute  distinctness,  Lincoln 
would  be  compelled  to  labor  with,  in  careful  deference  both 
to  our  Constitutional  protection  of  slavery,  and  to  its  moral 
wrong. 

This  situation  in  those  debates  deserves  a  close  atten 
tion.  The  difference  in  the  two  positions  was  most  pro 
found.  That  this  deep  difference  was  laid  fully  bare  was 
the  supreme  resultant  of  the  debate.  It  was  indeed  a 
difference  in  principles.  But  stated  yet  more  narrowly, 
it  was  a  difference  in  nothing  less  than  estimates  of  men, 
and  attitudes  towards  wrong.  It  was  not  a  difference  in 
abstract  theorems.  It  was  vastly  more.  It  was  a  differ 
ence  in  the  personal  qualities  of  the  two  protagonists. 
To  test  this  affirmation  let  any  one  imagine  Douglas  pro 
ducing  from  his  heart  the  sentiments,  and  arranging  in  his 
thought  the  arguments  of  Lincoln's  last  inaugural.  Doug 
las  sadly  erred  in  his  opinion  of  his  time.  In  Lincoln,  in 
those  debates,  our  government,  our  history,  our  ideal  as 
a  great  Republic  stood  incorporate.  Like  our  noble  his 
tory,  he  patiently  endured  and  bore  what  he  instinctively 
and  inveterately  abhorred.  This  pathetic  situation,  this 
invincible  anomaly  in  our  national  career,  is  pathetically 
re-enacted  in  the  fate  of  Lincoln  in  these  debates. 

This  at  bottom,  and  this  at  last  is  what  those  flashing 
falchions  and  ringing  shields  declare.  This  explains  the 
genesis  and  the  actual  course  of  those  painful  personalities. 
And  it  is  to  study  this  that  these  debates  have  been  intro 
duced.  In  the  personal  thrusts  of  those  debates  two 
qualities  in  Lincoln  become  pre-eminent.  He  would  not 
forsake  his  humble  championship  of  slaves.  He  would 
accept  no  thrust  against  his  personal  integrity.  Let  those 
debates  be  read,  and  re-perused  until  those  cardinal  ele 
ments  in  Lincoln's  attitude  come  clear.  And  let  it  be 
observed  that  in  no  single  personality  was  Lincoln's  thrust 


138  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

initial.  Douglas  opened  the  debate.  In  his  opening 
speech  he  made  direct  assertions  and  indirect  intimations 
too  gross  to  be  termed  subtle,  and  too  staring  to  be  called 
disguised;  imputing  and  suggesting  that  Lincoln  was  in 
character  a  coward  and  a  cheat,  in  his  politics  a  revolu 
tionary,  and  in  his  social  proclivities  contemptible.  These 
same  charges  were  made  with  unrelenting  persistency  and 
reiteration  by  Douglas  throughout  the  series  of  the  debates. 

To  every  imputation  Lincoln  made  definite  and  reiter 
ated  reply,  denouncing  them  roundly  as  unwarranted  and 
inexcusable  impeachment  of  his  honor,  his  veracity,  and 
his  candor.  And  then,  with  measured  and  exact  equiv 
alence,  he  dealt  out  to  Douglas's  face  a  list  of  counter 
personalities  of  sharply  parallel  and  actual  transactions 
in  Douglas's  life,  meriting  precisely  his  own  reproach. 
And  he  pressed  the  battle  home  so  hard  that  Douglas,  in 
an  impassioned  height  of  protest,  demanded  if  Lincoln 
meant  to  carry  his  tactics  up  to  "personal  difficulty." 

All  this  is  painful  confessedly  to  review.  One  wishes 
earnestly,  just  as  with  the  later  civil  war,  it  might  never 
have  occurred.  But  it  should  be  remembered  that  every 
retort  of  Lincoln  was,  as  in  the  war  itself,  in  personal 
defense.  Lincoln  was  not  the  assailant.  But  once  his 
honor  was  assailed,  it  was  not  the  nature  of  that  honor  to 
stand  so  mute  that  his  own  character  seemed  rightly 
smirched,  while  justice  rested  with  his  adversary.  And 
so,  in  self-defense,  as  in  his  speech  at  Quincy,he  carefully 
details,  he  vigorously  returned  each  thrust.  And  this,  be 
it  constantly  recalled,  not  in  any  selfishness,  not  for  wound 
ed  pride,  not  for  unction  to  a  hurt,  not  in  any  vengeful 
heat;  but  just  as  in  the  following  war,  in  absolute  unselfish 
ness,  void  of  malice,  in  the  ministry  of  charity,  that  the 
honor  of  all  men  might  be  saved,  and  that  the  Union  with 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  139 

its  boon  of  universal  freedom  and  equality  might  not 
perish  from  the  earth. 

Such  was  Lincoln's  patience,  in  those  earlier  debates,  and 
in  this  last  inaugural,  the  same.  While  bearing  volun 
tarily  in  his  single  life  all  the  opprobrium  borne  by  slaves; 
through  all  that  fellowship  and  sympathy,  and  on  its  sole 
behalf,  he  guarded  his  own  honor  with  an  infinite  jealousy. 
But  it  was  honor  saved  for  suffering.  His  life  was  sacri 
ficial.  He  learned  to  know  full  well,  but  willingly,  what 
meekness  costs.  Not  alone  from  a  political  antagonist 
and  an  embattled  South,  but  from  a  multitude  of  active 
dissentients  besides  throughout  the  North,  from  Congress, 
and  from  the  close  circle  of  his  cabinet  he  had  to  bear  with 
blind  misunderstandings,  and  malignant  misrepresenta 
tions  of  the  deeds  and  qualities  and  motives  of  his  per 
plexed  and  overburdened  life. 

But  whatever  his  shortcomings  or  mistakes,  whatever 
his  follies  or  sins,  two  affirmations  about  his  life  wrill  hold 
forever  true.  He  bore  his  load.  And  he  kept  his  path. 
Through  all  that  stern  campaign  for  liberty  and  union  he 
turned  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left.  Sorrows  and 
contentions  surrounded  him  continually.  But  he  descried 
a  better  time.  To  speed  that  day  he  welcomed  sacrifice. 
He  lived  and  died  for  nothing  else.  To  show  the  priceless 
worth  of  freemen  in  a  mighty  multitude,  in  a  civic  league 
of  lasting  unison  and  peace  was  his  supreme  commission 
and  consuming  wish.  To  bring  that  vision  near  he  aspired 
and  submitted  to  be  its  pattern  and  its  devotee. 

His  RISE   FROM    POVERTY — THE  PROBLEM  OF 

INDUSTRIALISM 

IN  his  first  public  speech,  seeking  election  to  the  State 
Legislature  of  Illinois  in  1832,  Lincoln  said:  "I  was  born, 
and  have  ever  remained,  in  the  most  humble  walks  of 


140  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

life."  He  adds:  "If  the  good  people  in  their  wisdom 
shall  see  fit  to  keep  me  in  the  background,  I  have  been 
too  familiar  with  disappointments  to  be  very  much  cha 
grined."  In  the  same  speech  he  said:  "I  have  no  other 
(ambition)  so  great  as  that  of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my 
fellow-men,  by  rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  esteem." 

Here  are  three  phrases  that  epitomize  Lincoln's  ideals 
and  Lincoln's  career: — "the  most  humble  walks  of  life;" 
"too  familiar  with  disappointments;"  and  "rendering 
myself  worthy  of  their  esteem."  There  at  the  age  of 
twenty-three  we  are  apprised  of  Lincoln's  poverty,  of  his 
ambition,  and  of  his  adversity.  In  the  same  address  he 
says:  "I  have  no  wealthy  or  popular  relatives  or  friends  to 
recommend  me."  At  that  time  he  had  been  but  two 
years  in  the  State. 

In  pondering  this  brief  and  frank  appeal  one  wonders 
at  the  blending  of  the  youthful  and  the  mature,  the  daring 
and  the  wary,  the  ardent  and  the  chastened,  the  eager  and 
the  sedate,  the  wistful  and  the  resigned.  What  had  been 
the  inner  and  the  outer  history  and  fortune  of  him,  who 
at  the  age  of  twenty-three  could  talk  of  being  "familiar 
with  disappointments" — so  familiar  with  experiences  of 
reverse  that  he  could  bear  the  public  refusal  of  his  one 
greatest  ambition,  that  public's  "true  esteem,"  without 
being  "much  chagrined."  Plainly  in  Lincoln's  early  life 
there  was  a  great  heart,  cherishing  a  high  hope,  but  envi 
roned  with  poverty,  familiar  with  reversals,  unchampioned, 
unknown.  Already  he  was  being  refined  by  manifold 
discipline.  Already  in  that  refining  fire  he  had  fixed  his 
eye  and  set  his  face  to  win  his  neighbor's  true  esteem. 
Therein  one  comprehends  his  whole  career.  Out  of  ob 
livion  and  solitude  and  direst  poverty  he  passed  by  sheer 
self-mastery  to  the  highest  national  authority  and  renown. 
Of  all  the  distance  and  of  all  the  way  between  those  "hum- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  141 

blest  walks"  and  that  commanding  eminence,  and  of  all  the 
pregnant  meaning  to  him  and  to  all  Americans,  and  indeed 
to  every  son  of  Adam,  of  that  achievement,  Lincoln  had  a 
marvelous  discerning  sense.  He  kn,  w  full  well  its  vast 
significance  and  he  never  let  its  vivid  recollection  lapse. 
It  was  always  in  his  living  consciousness. 

One  impressive  proof  and  token  that  the  meaning  of  his 
advancement  had  permanent  place  in  his  remembrance, 
and  that  he  deemed  his  fortune  an  ideal  and  a  type  of  our 
American  government  and  life  has  been  preserved  in  the 
tone  and  substance  of  his  address  in  Independence  Hall, 
when  on  his  way  to  his  first  great  inauguration.  Standing 
there  at  the  age  of  forty-one,  the  Nation's  president-elect, 
and  "filled  writh  deep  emotion,"  he  said:  "I  have  never 
had  a  feeling  politically  that  did  not  spring  from  the  senti 
ments  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence." 
And  to  give  that  statement  explanation  he  said,  "I  have 
often  inquired  of  myself  what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was 
that  kept  this  Confederacy  so  long  together."  And  for 
answer  to  that  inquiry  he  points  to  "that  sentiment  in 
the  Declaration  which  gave  liberty  not  alone  to  the  people 
of  this  country,  but  hope  to  all  the  world  for  all  future 
time.  It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time 
the  weights  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all  men, 
and  that  all  should  have  an  equal  chance."  "Liberty," 
"hope,"  "promise,"  "weights  lifted,"  "an  equal  chance," 
"to  all,"  "for  all,"  "of  all,"  "all,"  "in  due  time"— these 
are  the  terms  that  ans\vered  the  question  over  which  he 
"often  pondered"  and  "often  inquired."  This  was  the 
"great  principle,"  the  "idea"  which  held  the  Confederacy 
together.  This  was  the  "basis "  on  which,  if  he  could  save 
the  country,  he  would  be  "one  of  the  happiest  men  in  the 
world,  if  he  could  help  to  save  it. "  This  was  the  principle 
concerning  which  he  exclaimed:  "If  this  country  cannot 


142  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I  was  about 
to  say  that  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  upon  this  spot 
than  surrender  it" — words  whose  purport  is  seen  to  be 
nothing  less  than  tragic,  when  we  recall  the  peril  of  death, 
which  he  was  consciously  facing  in  that  very  hour  from  a 
deep  laid  conspiracy  against  his  life. 

Thus  spoke  Lincoln  within  ten  days  of  his  inauguration, 
in  a  speech  which  he  says  was  "wholly  unprepared." 
But  the  day  before,  in  a  speech  at  Trenton,  he  character 
ized  that  same  "idea"  as  that  "something  more  than 
common"  which  away  back  in  childhood,  the  earliest 
days  of  his  being  able  to  read,  he  recollected  thinking, 
"boy  though  I  was,"  was  the  "treasure"  for  which  "those 
men  struggled."  That  "something"  he  then  defines  as 
"even  more  than  national  independence;"  and  as  holding 
out  "a  great  promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  world  to  all 
time  to  come. " 

This  lifting  of  weights  from  the  shoulders  of  men,  this 
equal  chance  for  all;  this  was  the  liberty  for  which  the 
fathers  fought,  this  was  the  hope  which  their  Declaration 
enshrined,  this  it  was  whose  preservation  Lincoln  longed 
to  secure  above  any  other  happiness,  this  it  was  for  which 
he  was  all  but  ready  to  die. 

There  Lincoln  spoke  his  heart.  There  he  voiced  his 
highest  hopes.  There  he  traced  his  patriotism  to  its  roots. 
And  there  too  he  touched  the  quick  nerve  of  his  own  dis 
appointments,  of  his  own  often  futile  endeavors  and 
desires.  And  there  as  well  his  living  sympathy  with 
other  men,  encumbered  with  disadvantage  and  defeat, 
found  mighty  utterance.  Lifting  weights  from  the  shoul 
ders  of  all  men — that  in  "due  time"  this  should  be  achieved 
he  judged  and  felt  to  be  the  single  sovereign  meaning  of  our 
national  destiny. 

Of  just  this  national  destiny  Lincoln's  personal  life  was 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  143 

a  strangely  full  epitome.  His  shoulders  knew  full  well 
the  pressure  of  those  "weights."  His  soul  knew  all  the 
awful  volume  of  sorrow  as  of  joy,  that  poured  about  the 
denial  or  the  enjoyment  of  an  "equal  chance."  From 
the  humblest  walks  to  the  foremost  seat  he  had  been  per 
mitted  to  thread  his  way.  That  liberty  he  chiefly  sought 
in  struggling  youth.  That  liberty  he  chiefly  prized  as 
president.  And  this,  not  alone  for  himself,  not  alone  for 
all  Americans,  but  for  "all  the  world."  Thus  spoke 
Lincoln,  "all  unprepared"  in  February  of  1861. 

But  these  spontaneous  words  were  no  passing  breath  of 
transient  sentiments.  In  July  of  that  same  year  he  sent 
to  Congress  his  first  Message.  That  paper  was  Lincoln's 
studied  and  formal  argument,  a  president's  deliberate 
State  Paper,  addressing  to  Congress  his  responsible  demon 
stration  that  the  war  was  a  necessity.  In  that  argument 
and  demonstration  his  fundamental  postulate  was  a  defini 
tion  of  our  government.  In  that  definition  he  affirms 
its  "leading  object"  to  be  "to  elevate  the  condition  of 
men — to  lift  artificial  weights  from  all  shoulders;  to  clear 
the  paths  of  laudable  pursuit  for  all,  to  afford  all  an  un 
fettered  start,  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life. "  And 
so  he  calls  the  war  a  "people's  contest."  And  he  speaks 
of  its  deeper  purport  as  something  that  "the  plain  people 
understand."  And  he  speaks  of  the  loyalty  of  all  the 
common  soldiers — not  one  of  whom  was  known  to  have 
deserted  his  flag — as  "the  patriotic  instinct  of  the  plain 
people. " 

Those  words  of  Lincoln  in  Trenton  and  Philadelphia, 
defining  the  "leading  object"  in  the  minds  of  the  founders 
of  our  government  in  the  hours  of  its  birth-travail,  define 
his  own  idea  and  ideal  as  he  approached  the  hour  of  his 
presidential  oath.  That  a  national  government,  thus 
beneficently  designed  for  the  equal  weal  of  all,  should  be 


144  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

preserved  inviolate  and  preserved  from  dissolution  was 
his  supreme  desire  and  his  supreme  resolve.  Its  majesty 
and  its  integrity  must  be  held  most  sacred  and  most 
jealously  preserved.  This  was  the  apple  of  his  eye.  By 
the  light  of  this  ideal  and  in  the  pursuit  of  this  alluring, 
wistful  hope  he  studied  and  judged  all  the  movements  of 
his  time.  And  in  this,  his  initial  message,  he  registers  his 
official  verdict  upon  those  surrounding  evolutions  and 
events.  A  vast  and  ever-expanding  Confederacy  of 
intelligent  and  resolute  men,  leagued  together  in  a  Union 
of  Confederate  States,  and  pledged  to  secure  to  all  men 
within  its  bounds  a  clear  path,  an  unfettered  start,  and  a 
fair  chance  in  every  laudable  pursuit,  was  judged  by  him 
a  civic  undertaking  too  preciously  freighted  with  promise 
and  hope  for  the  welfare  of  the  world  to  be  ever  disrupted 
and  destroyed  by  the  disloyalty  and  the  withdrawal  of 
any  one  or  any  cluster  of  its  constituent  parts.  It  was  a 
Union  as  sacred  and  holy  as  all  the  worth  and  all  the  hopes 
of  men.  To  separate  from  such  a  league  was  a  capital 
disloyalty.  To  disintegrate  such  a  unison  was  the  ultimate 
inhumanity.  To  stand  fast  forever  by  such  a  federation 
was  a  crowning  fidelity.  To  preserve,  protect  and  defend 
such  a  Union,  at  whatever  cost  of  life  or  wealth,  and  there 
in  to  adventure  however  sacred  honor  was  a  primary  and 
a  final  obligation.  By  its  perpetual  preservation  unim 
paired  was  secured  to  all  mankind  the  vision  and  the  price 
less  promise  of  liberty  and  hope.  By  secession,  defiance, 
and  violent  assault,  that  precious  human  treasure  was 
being  endangered  and  defiled.  Hence  his  anxious  all- 
consuming  eagerness  as  he  approached  his  ominous  task. 
Hence  his  firm  acceptance  of  awful,  inevitable  war. 

Such  were  the  marshalings  of  Lincoln's  thoughts  and 
sentiments  as  he  approached  and  undertook  his  mighty 
work — fit  prelude  in  Independence  Hall,  and  befitting 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  145 

explanation  and  defense  in  the  Halls  of  Congress  of  the 
mighty  rallying  of  those  regiments  of  men  for  the  awful 
combats  of  a  people's  war. 

This  was  Lincoln's  argument.  That  the  rights  of  life 
and  liberty  and  happiness  were  designed  and  decreed  by 
the  Maker  of  all  to  be  equal  for  all  was  for  him,  as  an 
American,  and  for  him  as  a  fellow  and  a  friend  of  all,  under 
God,  an  axiom.  And  to  that  firm  truth  the  war  was  but  a 
corollary.  Because  the  Union  was  a  league  of  freemen, 
kindred  to  God,  and  peers  among  themselves,  bound  to 
gether  in  mutual  goodwill  and  for  mutual  weal,  it  must  at 
all  hazards  and  through  all  perils  and  sorrows  be  made 
perpetual.  Not  that  slavery  should  be  immediately  re 
moved,  though  its  existence  in  such  a  league  was  an  elemen 
tal  unworthiness  and  affront;  but  that  the  Union  should 
be  forever  secured  was  his  immediate  aspiration  and  re 
solve.  This  once  achieved  and  forever  assured,  and  slavery 
with  every  other  kindred  inequality  would  in  "due  time" 
be  done  away. 

This  is  the  key  and  the  core  of  his  ringing  and  irresistible 
retort  to  Greeley.  This  was  the  inspiration  of  that  im 
mortal  appeal  at  Gettysburg,  the  very  pledge  and  secret 
of  its  excellence  and  immortality — the  plea  that  govern 
ment  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people  should 
not  perish  from  the  earth. 

And  it  was  definitively  this  axiomatic  verity  that  pro 
vided  to  his  deeply  thoughtful  mind  that  deeply  philo 
sophic  interpretation  of  the  divine  intention  in  the  war, 
which  he  so  carefully  enshrined  within  his  last  inaugural. 
The  sin  of  slavery  had  transgressed  a  primary  law  of  God. 
Human  shoulders  had  been  heavily  laden  with  artificial 
weights.  Brother  men  had  been  denied  by  fellow-men  an 
equal  start.  The  paths  of  laudable  pursuit  were  not  kept 
equally  clear  to  all.  Multitudes  of  men,  by  the  inhuman 


146  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

tyranny  of  the  strong  upon  the  weak,  and  that  from  birth 
to  death,  had  been  accorded  no  fair  chance.  Men  had 
toiled  for  centuries,  and  that  beneath  the  lash,  without 
requital.  Hence  the  awful  doom  and  woe  of  war — God's 
visitation  upon  ourselves  of  our  own  offense,  the  wasting 
of  our  unholy  wealth  and  the  leveling  of  our  inhuman 
pride.  And  all  of  this  was  being  guided  through  to  its 
predestined  and  most  holy  end  with  the  divine  design 
that  through  the  awful  baptism  of  blood  our  national  life 
should  begin  anew  in  humble  reverence  for  him  whose  just 
and  fiery  jealousy  demands  that  all  his  little  ones  shall 
share  with  all  the  mightiest  in  equal  rights.  Thus  Lin 
coln  viewed  the  war  as  God's  avenging  vindication  of  the 
just  and  gracious  principles  that  all  men  everywhere  are 
entitled  to  share  together  equally  in  liberty  and  hope. 

But  Lincoln  felt  all  of  this  to  be,  not  alone  the  law  of 
God,  but  quite  as  truly  the  common  and  compelling 
affirmation  of  the  human  heart.  This  way  and  style  of 
phrasing  it  found  eloquent  annunciation  in  that  earliest 
and  unanswerable  address  respecting  slavery  at  Peoria 
in  October  of  1854,  where  were  deeply  laid  and  may  still 
be  seen  the  foundations  of  all  his  power  and  fame.  In 
that  address  he  said,  "My  faith  in  the  proposition,  that 
each  man  should  do  precisely  as  he  pleases  with  all  which 
is  exclusively  his  own,  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  sense 
of  justice  there  is  in  me. "  And  upon  that  foundation  he 
laid  this  cornerstone  of  social  and  civic  order:  "No  man 
is  good  enough  to  govern  another  man  without  that  other 
man's  consent."  To  so  invade  the  liberty  of  another 
man  is  "despotism."  Such  invasion  is  "founded  in  the 
selfishness  of  man's  nature. "  "  Opposition  to  it  is  founded 
in  his  sense  of  justice."  "These  principles  are  in  eternal 
antagonism."  When  they  collide,  "shocks  and  throes 
and  convulsions  must  ceaselessly  follow."  These  senti- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  147 

ments  of  liberty  are  above  repeal.  Though  you  repeal 
all  past  history,  "you  cannot  repeal  human  nature." 
Out  of  the  "abundance  of  man's  heart"  "his  mouth  will 
continue  to  speak. "  And  to  demonstrate  that  this  senti 
ment  of  liberty,  this  consciousness  that  human  worth  is 
sovereign,  is  a  verity  of  human  nature  which  even  holders 
of  slaves  corroborate,  he  points  to  the  over  400,000  free 
negroes  then  in  the  land.  Their  presence  is  proof  that 
deep  in  all  human  hearts  is  a  "sense  of  human  justice  and 
sympathy"  continually  attesting  "that  the  poor  negro 
has  some  natural  right  to  himself,  and  that  those  who 
deny  it  and  make  merchandise  of  him  deserve  kickings, 
contempt  and  death."  This  irrepealable  law  of  the 
human  heart  was  a  mighty  rock  of  confidence  in  Lincoln's 
social  and  political  faith.  All  men  were  made  to  be  free, 
and  entitled  equally  to  a  happy  life;  and  of  this  divine 
endowment  all  men  everywhere  were  well  aware.  Human 
nature  is  by  its  nature  the  birthplace  and  the  home  of 
liberty  and  hope. 

Especially  serviceable  for  the  purposes  of  this  study 
upon  Industrialism  is  the  section  in  Lincoln's  Message  to 
Congress  of  December,  1861,  dealing  with  what  he  calls 
our  "popular  institutions."  With  his  eagle  eye  he  dis 
cerns  in  the  Southern  insurrection  an  "approach  of  re 
turning  despotism."  The  assault  upon  the  Union  was 
proving  itself,  under  his  gaze,  an  attack  upon  "the  first 
principles  of  popular  government — the  rights  of  the 
people."  And  against  that  assault  he  raised  "a  warning 
voice." 

In  this  warning  he  treats  specifically  the  relation  of 
labor  and  capital.  In  this  discussion  his  motive  is  single 
and  clear.  He  detects  a  danger  that  so-called  labor  may 
be  assumed  to  be  so  inseparably  bound  up  and  indentured 
with  capital  as  to  be  subject  to  capital  in  a  sort  of  bond- 


148  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

age;  and  that,  once  labor,  whether  slave  or  hired,  is  brought 
under  that  assumed  subjection,  that  condition  is  "fixed 
for  life." 

Both  of  these  assumptions  he  assails.  Labor  is  not  a 
"subject  state;"  nor  is  capital  in  any  sense  its  master. 
There  is  "no  such  thing  as  a  free  man's  being  fixed  for 
life  in  the  condition  of  a  hired  laborer."  So  he  affirms. 
And  then  he  argues  that  "labor  is  prior  to  and  independ 
ent  of  capital."  "Capital  is  only  the  fruit  of  labor." 
"Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital,  and  deserves  much  the 
higher  consideration. "  Hired  labor,  and  capital  that  hires 
and  labors  not — these  do  both  exist;  and  both  have  rights. 
But  "a  large  majority  belong  to  neither  class — neither 
work  for  others,  nor  have  others  working  for  them. "  This 
is  measurably  true  even  in  the  Southern  States.  While  in 
the  Northern  States  a  large  majority  are  "neither  hirers  nor 
hired."  And  even  where  free  labor  is  employed  for  hire, 
that  condition  is  not  "fixed  for  life."  "  Many  independent 
men  everywhere  in  these  Northern  States,  a  few  years 
back  in  their  lives,  were  hired  laborers."  The  "penni 
less,"  if  "prudent,"  "labors  for  wages  awhile;"  "saves  a 
surplus;"  "then  labors  on  his  own  account;"  and  "at 
length  hires  another  new  beginner  to  help  him."  "This 
is  the  just  and  generous  and  prosperous  system  which 
opens  the  way  to  all,  gives  hope  to  all. "  Here  is  a  form 
of  "political  power;"  here  is  a  "popular  principle"  that 
underlies  present  national  prosperity  and  strength,  and 
infolds  a  pledge  of  its  certain  future  abounding  expansion. 
Thus  Lincoln  argued  in  his  Annual  Message  of  1861. 

In  his  Annual  Message  of  1862,  he  pursued  in  a  similar 
strain,  a  vital  and  kindred  aspect  of  the  same  industrial 
theme.  He  was  arguing  with  Congress  in  favor  of  com 
pensated  emancipation.  In  the  course  of  that  argument, 
speaking  of  the  relation  of  freed  negroes  to  white  labor 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  149 

and  white  laborers,  he  said:  "If  there  ever  could  be  a 
proper  time  for  mere  catch  arguments,  that  time  surely 
is  not  now.  In  time  like  the  present,  men  should  utter 
nothing  for  which  they  would  not  willingly  be  responsible 
through  time  and  in  eternity."  And  then,  after  appeal 
ing  with  utmost  patience  and  consideration  and  with 
ideal  persuasiveness  to  every  better  sentiment  and  to 
every  proper  interest,  he  drew  towards  the  close  of  his 
plea  with  these  arresting,  prophetic,  almost  forboding 
words,  words  richly  worth  citation  for  a  second  time: — 
"The  occasion  is  piled  high  with  difficulty,  and  we  must 
rise  with  the  occasion.*'  "We  must  disenthrall  our 
selves,  and  then  we  shall  save  our  country."  "We  can 
not  escape  history."  "The  fiery  trial  through  which  we 
pass  will  light  us  down,  in  honor  or  dishonor,  to  the  latest 
generation. "  "  We  know  how  to  save  the  Union. "  "  We 
— even  we  here — hold  the  power  and  bear  the  responsi 
bility."  "In  giving  freedom  to  the  slave,  we  assure  free 
dom  to  the  free — honorable  alike  in  what  we  give  and  what 
we  preserve."  "WTe  shall  nobly  save  or  meanly  lose  the 
last,  best  hope  of  earth."  "The  way  is  plain,  peaceful, 
generous,  just — a  way  which,  if  followed,  the  world  will 
forever  applaud,  and  God  must  forever  bless. " 

Thus  Lincoln  voiced,  and  in  terms  that  human-kind 
will  not  lightly  suffer  to  be  forgotten,  his  seasoned  and 
convinced  belief  about  the  principles  that  should  hold 
dominion  in  the  industrial  realm.  They  reveal  that  in 
his  chastened  and  chastening  faith  Civics  and  Economics 
are  merged  forever  in  Ethics,  and  that  therein  they  are 
forever  at  one.  Individuals,  however  lowly  or  however 
strong;  parties  or  combinations  of  men  or  wealth,  however 
massive  or  however  firm;  governments  or  nations,  how 
ever  puissant,  ambitious  or  proud,  are  alike  endowed  and 
alike  enjoined  with  sovereign  duties  and  with  sovereign 


150  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

rights.  The  negro,  however  poor,  may  not  be  robbed  or 
exploited  or  bound  by  any  master,  however  grand.  The 
soil  of  a  neighboring  government,  however  alluring  its 
promise  of  expansion  or  wealth,  may  never  be  invaded  or 
annexed  by  force  of  any  Nation's  arms,  however  exalted 
and  humane  that  Nation's  professions  and  aims.  If  any 
man,  or  any  Nation  of  men  be  but  meagerly  endowed, 
that  humble  heritage  is  inviolably  theirs  forever  to  enjoy. 
The  person  of  Dred  Scott  and  the  soil  of  Mexico  are 
holy  ground — heaven-appointed  sanctuaries  that  no 
oppressor  or  invader  may  ever  venture  to  profane.  If  to 
any  nation,  or  to  any  man  "God  gave  but  little,  that 
little  let  him  enjoy. "  Slavery  and  tyranny  are  iniquitous 
economy.  "Take  from  him  that  is  needy"  is  the  rule  of 
the  slaveholder  and  the  tyrant.  "Give  to  him  that  is 
needy"  is  the  rule  of  Christian  charity.  As  between  the 
strong  and  the  weak,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  timid 
and  the  bold,  "this  good  earth  is  plenty  broad  enough 
for  both." 

Here  is  indeed  an  eternal  struggle.  But  underneath  is 
"an  eternal  principle."  And  among  the  many  Nations 
of  the  earth  this  American  people  are  bringing  to  this 
principle  in  the  face  of  all  the  world  a  world-commanding 
demonstration  of  its  benign  validity.  By  the  sweat  of 
his  face  shall  man  eat  bread.  And  the  fruit  of  his  toil 
shall  man  enjoy. 

So  would  Lincoln  guard,  in  the  industrial  world,  against 
all  exaggeration  and  all  infringement  of  human  liberties 
and  rights,  and  this  quite  as  much  for  the  sake  of  the 
strong  as  in  defense  of  the  weak.  Tyranny,  in  despoiling 
the  weak,  despoils  the  tyrant  too.  Liberty  does  harm  to 
none,  but  brings  rich  boon  to  all.  Thus  Lincoln  cherished 
freedom. 

But  deep  within  this  treasured  liberty  Lincoln  saw  the 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  151 

shining  jewel  of  human  hope.  And  hope  with  him  was 
ever  neighborly.  And  this  generous  sentiment,  expanding 
forever  in  his  heart,  he  cherished,  not  merely  as  common 
civilian,  but  as  president.  It  was  while  at  Cincinnati,  on 
his  way  to  his  inauguration,  that  he  said,  "I  hold  that 
while  man  exists  it  is  his  duty  not  only  to  improve  his 
own  condition,  but  also  to  assist  in  ameliorating  mankind. " 
"It  is  not  my  nature,  when  I  see  people  borne  down  by 
the  weight  of  their  shackles  ....  to  make  their 
life  more  bitter  by  heaping  upon  them  greater  burdens; 
but  rather  would  I  do  all  in  my  power  to  raise  the  yoke." 

But  true  as  was  Lincoln's  view  of  our  national  mission, 
and  clear  and  just  and  generous  as  was  his  own  desire,  he 
saw  in  the  Nation's  path  before  his  face  a  mighty  obstacle. 
He  knew  the  fascination  of  "property."  And  he  knew 
that  this  fascination  held  its  malevolent  sway,  even  though 
that  "property"  was  vested  in  human  life.  Here  was  the 
brunt  of  all  his  battle.  The  slaves  of  his  day  had  a  "cash 
value"  at  a  "moderate  estimate"  of  $2,000,000,000.  He 
saw  that  this  property  value  had  "a  vast  influence  on 
the  minds  of  its  owners. "  And  he  knew  that  this  was  so 
"very  naturally"  that  the  same  amount  of  property 
"would  have  an  equal  influence  ....  if  owned 
in  the  North;"  that  "human  nature  is  the  same;"  that 
"public  opinion  is  founded  to  great  extent  on  a  property 
basis;"  that  "what  lessens  the  value  of  property  is  op 
posed;"  that  "what  enhances  its  value  is  favored." 

With  this  prevailing  tendency,  native  and  universal  in 
all  men  alike,  he  had  to  deal.  Indeed  he  had  no  other 
problem.  All  his  presidential  difficulties  reduced  to 
this: — the  universal  greed  of  men  for  gain;  and  deep 
within  this  inborn  greed,  man's  inborn  selfishness.  And 
all  his  all-absorbing  toil  and  thought  as  statesman  and  as 
president  were  to  exalt  in  human  estimation  the  values 


152  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

in  men  above  all  other  gain.  This  desire  lay  deep  in  his 
heart  at  the  beginning  of  his  struggle  in  1854.  At  the  end 
of  his  conflict  in  those  closing  days  of  his  life  in  1865  this 
longing  came  forth  as  pure  and  shining  gold  thrice  refined. 

From  the  time  of  his  second  election  his  thoughts  moved 
with  an  almost  unwonted  constancy  upon  these  upper 
heights.  With  immeasurable  satisfaction  he  brooded  and 
pondered  over  the  emerging  issues  of  the  stupendous 
strife.  With  an  almost  mother's  love  he  considered  and 
counted  over  and  reckoned  up  those  outcomes  of  the 
sacrifice  that  should  worthily  endure.  With  a  vision 
purged  of  every  form  of  vanity  and  every  form  of  selfish 
ness,  not  as  a  miser,  but  in  very  deed  with  a  mother's 
pride  and  inner  joy,  he  recited  over  the  precious  inventory 
of  the  chastened  Nation's  wealth. 

Touching  evidence  of  this  is  in  his  habitual  tone  of 
speech  when  addressing  soldiers  returning  from  the  field 
to  their  homes.  Over  and  over  again  he  would  remind 
the  men  of  the  vital  principle  at  stake,  alike  in  war  and 
in  peace.  "That  you  may  all  have  equal  privileges  in  the 
race  of  life;"  that  there  may  be  "an  open  field  and  a  fair 
chance  for  your  industry,  enterprise,  and  intelligence — 
this  is  "our  birthright,"  our  "inestimable  pearl."  "No 
where  in  the  world  is  presented  a  government  of  so  much 
liberty  and  equality. "  "To  the  humblest  and  the  poorest 
among  us  are  held  out  the  highest  privileges  and  posi 
tions."  It  is  hard  to  say,  when  he  was  voicing  his  satis 
faction  and  his  gratitude  to  these  returning  regiments,  to 
which  his  words  were  most  directly  addressed,  to  the 
soldier  in  the  uniform,  or  to  the  citizen.  All  those  veteran 
soldiers  were  to  his  discerning  eyes  the  precious  sterling 
units  of  the  Nation's  lasting  wealth.  In  their  service  as 
defenders  of  the  Union  they  had  saved  the  most  precious 
human  heritage  that  human  history  ever  knew  or  human 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  153 

hope  conceived.  And  of  that  heritage  and  hope  they  were 
themselves  the  exponent.  Their  service  under  arms  and 
their  civilian  life  in  coming  days  of  peace  were  one.  And 
with  a  deep  and  fond  solicitude  he  would  charge  them  to 
shield  and  guard,  to  champion  and  defend  with  ballot  as 
with  sword  their  dear-bought  liberty  and  right.  These 
peaceable  precious  fruits  of  the  deadly  terrible  war  he 
well  foresaw  and  greeted  eagerly.  The  verdict  of  the 
ballots  in  his  re-election  in  1864  proclaimed  afar  a  word 
the  world  had  never  heard  before.  It  "demonstrated 
that  a  people's  government  can  sustain  a  national  election 
in  the  midst  of  a  great  civil  war. "  That  verdict  declared 
authoritatively  that  government  by  the  people  was  "sound 
and  strong."  And  it  also  showed  by  actual  count  that 
after  four  terrible  years  of  war  the  government  had  more 
supporting  men  than  when  the  war  began.  This  abound 
ing  victory  filled  and  satisfied  his  heart.  And  in  the 
presence  of  that  unexampled  proof  that  equal  liberty  for 
all  was  safe  within  the  guardianship  of  common  men,  he 
exclaimed  with  a  prophet's  vision  of  the  living  unison  of 
civic  and  economic  weal: — "Gold  is  good  in  its  place,  but 
living,  brave,  patriotic  men  are  better  than  gold. " 

Such  were  Lincoln's  principles  as  he  defined  a  Nation's 
true  prosperity  and  wealth.  A  Nation's  strength,  a 
Nation's  honor,  a  Nation's  truest  treasure  is  in  her  men. 
Men  of  freedom  and  men  of  hope,  men  intolerant  of 
tyranny,  men  resolved  to  be  worthy  of  themselves  and 
conrcious  of  kinship  with  their  Maker,  men  jealous  equally 
of  their  own  and  their  brother's  liberty,  men  who  welcome 
all  the  bonds  involved  in  a  friendly  league  of  equal  duties 
and  equal  rights,  men  in  whom  the  amelioration  of  all  is 
a  ruling  desire,  these  are  the  chief  and  best  achievement  in 
the  proudest  Nation's  wealth.  To  undervalue  men,  pre 
ferring  any  other  good,  is  to  cherish  in  a  Nation's  heart 


154  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

the  source  of  its  undoing.  More  to  be  prized  than  finest 
gold  is  every  citizen.  However  weak  and  humble  any 
man  may  be,  his  honor  is  sacredly  above  offense.  To 
leave  the  burden  of  the  feeble  unrelieved,  or  to  clog  the 
progress  of  the  slow  is  in  any  Nation's  history  a  primal 
sin,  and  is  sure  to  be  abundantly  revenged.  For  such  a 
sin  no  store  of  wealth  has  power  to  atone.  A  sin  like  that 
a  sinner  himself  must  bear.  This  is  the  central  thought 
of  the  last  inaugural.  These  were  the  human  sentiments 
lying  underneath  all  Lincoln's  economic  faith.  To  these 
firm  verities  he  held  devotedly,  whether  counseling  the 
Nation  as  its  president,  projecting  negro  colonies  as  the 
negro's  friend,  or  offering  to  an  idling,  impecunious  brother 
a  dollar  gratis  for  every  dollar  earned. 

Men  are  equal;  men  are  free.  Men  are  royal;  men  are 
kin.  Men  are  hopeful;  men  aspire.  Men  are  feeble;  men 
have  need.  Men  may  prosper;  men  may  rise.  Meliora 
tion  is  for  all.  Men  have  duties;  men  have  rights.  Rights 
are  mutual;  duties  bind.  Every  man  resents  offense. 
Only  despots  can  offend.  Human  tyranny  is  doomed. 
Vengeance  waits  on  every  wrong.  God  is  sovereign,  kind 
and  just.  These  are  Lincoln's  sentiments.  These  he 
nobly  illustrates.  These  are  laws  which  he  defends. 
These  are  truths  he  vindicates. 

These  few  fundamental  principles,  applied  anywhere 
in  the  industrial  field,  would  soon  and  certainly  put  in 
force  wholesome,  everlasting,  all-embracing  laws.  If,  like 
Lincoln  himself,  men  start  in  penury  with  never  a  favor 
and  never  a  friend,  then,  like  him,  they  must  hire  them 
selves  to  other  men  for  the  going  wage.  But  every  such 
a  contract  must  be  forever  subject  to  a  fair  and  orderly 
recall.  The  humblest  earner  of  a  daily  wage  must  be 
forever  free,  free  to  continue  or  to  withdraw.  To  his 
freedom  and  improvement,  to  his  enheartenment  and 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  155 

hope  all  industrial  regulations  must  conduce.  This  is 
basic.  This  alone  is  generous  and  fair.  And  only  here 
can  any  government  win  permanence  and  peace. 

Here  are  Lincoln's  primal  postulates  in  social  economics. 
Moral  imperatives  are  over  every  man.  Moral  freedom 
is  in  every  breast.  Within  the  nethermost  foundations  of 
any  mortal's  share  in  any  social  fellowship  must  rest  his 
own  self -wrought  integrity  and  self-respect.  To  make 
that  social  fellowship  in  any  form  perpetually  secure  each 
man  must  seek  with  all  his  heart  and  with  continual  willing 
sacrifice  the  lasting  welfare  of  every  party  and  of  every 
part.  That  this  be  safely  guaranteed  each  man  must 
learn  to  estimate  his  brother-man,  not  by  epaulets  and 
coins,  but  by  immortal  standards,  such  as  only  living 
persons  can  achieve.  To  make  this  social  league  invincible 
within,  each  member  in  the  fellowship  must  show  a  true 
humility,  abjuring  all  temptation  or  desire  to  be  a  despot 
or  a  grandee.  And  through  it  all  this  social  compact 
must  be  cherished  and  revered  as  ordained  by  a  God  of 
pure  and  sovereign  truth  and  love.  Thus  by  friendly 
ministry,  in  unpretending  honesty,  in  brother-kindliness, 
as  sharing  in  a  common  immortality,  under  the  favor  and 
in  the  fear  of  God,  may  fellowmen  in  multitudes  be  fellow 
citizens  in  a  civic  order  that  may  hope  for  perpetual 
prosperity.  This  is  the  resounding  message  that  Lin 
coln's  life  transmuted  into  speech  through  his  pathetic 
and  inspiring  rise  from  poverty. 

His  PHILOSOPHY — THE  PROBLEM  OF  REALITY 

THE  study  of  Lincoln's  moral  versatility,  examined  in 
a  former  chapter,  ranging  as  it  does  through  all  the 
measure  of  the  moral  realm,  verges  all  along  its  border  on 
the  domain  of  philosophy.  Lincoln  has  scant  familiarity, 


156  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

it  is  true,  with  the  rubrics  and  the  problems,  the  theories 
and  the  methods  of  the  schools.  His  boyhood  was  in  the 
wilderness;  locusts  and  wild  honey  were  his  food.  Such 
education  as  he  achieved  was  in  pathetic  isolation.  It 
was  a  naked  earth,  unfurnished  with  any  aids  or  guides, 
from  which  his  homely  hard-earned  wisdom  was  labori 
ously  wrung.  But  his  Maker  dowered  him  with  a  mind 
attempered  to  defiance  of  every  difficulty.  And,  however 
stern  the  face  of  his  life's  fortune  might  become,  his  sterner 
will  and  diligence  found  in  her  solitudes  her  choicest 
treasures.  To  minds  that  nimbly  traverse  many  books, 
thinking  to  have  gained  the  substance  of  great  truths, 
when  they  have  only  gained  vain  forms,  this  may  seem 
to  be  impossible.  But  Lincoln's  mind  had  traversed 
severest  discipline.  He  found  rare  substance  of  intellec 
tual  wealth.  And  he  knew  its  solid  worth.  Of  this,  as 
has  been  shown,  his  first  inaugural  yields  shining  proof. 
Almost  every  sentence  is  as  the  oracle  of  a  sage. 

But  his  second  inaugural,  too,  is  a  gem  of  wisdom, 
clear  and  pure,  fit  ornament  for  any  man  to  wear  in  any 
place  where  wisest  men  convene.  Let  keenest  eyes  ex 
amine  narrowly  the  aspiration  with  which  this  second 
inaugural  concludes.  There  shines  a  wish  as  bright  as 
any  human  hope  that  ever  shone  in  human  breast — a 
wish  that  all  the  earth  might  gain  to  just  and  lasting 
peace.  That  yearning  plea  was  voiced  upon  the  very 
breath  that  spoke  of  the  battles  and  wounds,  the  dead  and 
the  bereft,  of  a  mighty  Nation  in  fratricidal  war.  The 
peace  he  sought  for  within  all  the  land,  and  through  all 
the  earth,  was  to  be  the  national  consummation  of  a  con 
flict  in  which  multitudes  of  men  and  millions  of  treasure 
had  been  offered  up  under  God  in  the  name  of  charity  and 
right.  Such  was  the  wording  and  the  setting  of  this  wish. 

Comprehend  its  girth.     It  encircled  all  the  earth.     This 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  157 

cannot  he  said  to  be  nothing  but  the  ill-considered  aspira 
tion  of  an  inexperienced  underling.  It  is  the  prayer  of 
one  who  for  four  terrific  years  had  held  the  chief  position 
in  conducting  the  executive  affairs  of  one  of  the  major 
empires  of  the  world.  During  all  that  time,  among  the 
bewildering  and  imperious  problems  of  an  era  of  unex 
ampled  civil  convulsion,  hardly  any  complications  had 
been  more  obstinate  or  more  disturbing  than  those  bound 
up  in  the  relation  of  the  United  States  to  the  other  major 
Nations  of  the  world.  Within  those  international  com 
plications  were  infolded  problems  and  principles  as  pro 
foundly  fundamental  as  any  within  any  Nation's  single 
life,  or  within  all  the  reach  of  international  law.  In  such 
a  situation  and  out  of  such  a  career  Lincoln  culminates 
the  declaration  of  his  policy  for  a  second  presidential 
term  with  an  invocation  of  just  and  lasting  peace  among 
ourselves  and  with  all  Nations. 

Again  let  it  be  said,  and  be  it  not  forgotten,  that  it  is 
from  the  lips  of  Lincoln  that  this  appeal  ascends.  He  is 
not  a  novice.  He  is  a  seasoned  veteran.  Coming  from 
that  heart,  and  spoken  in  that  hour,  those  words  cannot 
be  lightly  flung  aside.  They  are  the  longing  of  a  man 
who,  through  almost  unparalleled  discipline,  has  attained 
an  almost  peerless  sobriety,  sincerity,  and  clear-sighted 
ness.  Too  honest  to  utter  hollow  words,  too  deliberate 
to  accept  an  ill-judged  phrase,  too  discerning  to  recom 
mend  a  futile  and  unlikely  proposition,  and  sobered  far 
beyond  any  power  or  inclination  to  play  the  hypocrite, 
we  must  concede  that  Lincoln  meant  and  measured  what 
he  said.  In  simple  fairness,  and  in  all  sobriety,  we  must 
allow  that  Lincoln  understood  that  the  principles  which 
guided  him  as  national  chief  magistrate,  and  the  goal 
towards  which  he  was  driving  everything  in  his  conduct 
of  the  war,  contained  all  needed  light  and  power  for  win- 


158  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

ning  all  the  world  to  perpetual  harmony.  This  is  nothing 
less  than  to  allow  in  Lincoln's  deeds  and  words  the  sweep 
and  insight  of  a  philosopher.  And  it  is  but  simple  justice, 
though  of  vast  significance,  to  append  just  here  that  it  was 
in  the  office  and  person  of  John  Hay,  Lincoln's  private 
secretary,  when  later  he  was  our  Secretary  of  State,  that 
there  dawned  and  brightened  the  new  era  in  international 
diplomacy,  now  in  our  day  so  widely  inaugurated,  and  so 
well  advanced.  It  can  be  truly  added  that  in  this  vast 
arena,  where  mighty  Nations  are  the  actors,  and  in  very 
fact  all  the  world  is  the  stage,  those  cardinal  moral  traits 
of  Lincoln,  and  his  transparent  and  commanding  personal 
ity,  so  steadfast  and  vivid  and  gentle  and  meek,  have  no 
need  to  borrow  from  other  and  ancient  theories  and  illus 
trations  of  world-wide  statesmanship  either  light  or  power. 
That  each  individual  retain  unsmirched  and  undiminished 
his  pristine  self-respect  as  the  cornerstone  of  all  reliability, 
his  neighborly  kindness  as  the  prime  condition  of  all  true 
comity,  his  child-like  deference  towards  God  as  the  basis 
of  all  genuine  dignity,  and  his  rating  of  human  souls  above 
all  perishable  goods  as  the  absolute  and  essential  founda 
tion  of  any  perpetuity,  forms  a  programme  as  elemental 
and  imperial  among  mightiest  Nations,  as  among  hum 
blest  neighborhoods  of  men.  Lincoln's  obedient  recogni 
tion  of  the  Almighty's  purposes  in  over-ruling  national 
affairs,  his  king-like  resolution  to  hold  loyally  by  his  innate 
sense  of  equity,  his  eagerness  for  the  elevation  of  all  the 
oppressed,  his  instinctive  aspiration  in  his  civic  life  for 
foundations  that  cannot  fail,  and  his  uncomplaining  fel 
lowship  with  the  penal  sorrows  of  his  erring  fellow  citizens, 
— all  apprehended  and  defended  and  adhered  to  with  such 
a  lucid  mind  and  steadfast  will  and  prophetic  hope  upon 
the  open  platform  of  our  American  Republic — propose 
both  in  active  practice  and  in  reasoned  theory  a  pattern 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  159 

of  statesmanship,  capable  of  comprehending  the  political 
conditions,  and  directing  the  diplomacy  of  all  the  govern 
ments  of  the  world.  Here  are  the  primal  conditions  and 
constituents  of  international  amity.  Agreements  con 
structed  and  defended  thereupon  among  the  Nations  could 
not  fail  to  be  fair.  They  would  surely  endure.  And  as 
the  centuries  passed,  the  faith  of  Lincoln  in  a  Ruler  of 
Nations,  just,  benign,  eternal,  supreme,  would  abounding- 
ly  increase. 

But  once  again  it  must  be  said  that  these  are  not  the 
themes,  nor  this  the  flight  of  an  untrained  imagination. 
The  peace  among  all  Nations  towards  which  Lincoln's 
hope  appealed,  wras  being  patterned  upon  a  just  and  last 
ing  achievement  among  ourselves.  And  among  ourselves 
the  government  was  being  tried  in  the  burning,  fiery  fur 
nace  of  a  civil  war.  It  was  being  proved  in  flames  what 
factors  in  a  national  civic  order  were  permanent,  and  fair, 
and  approved  of  God.  It  was  out  of  deep  affliction  and 
unsparing  discipline,  rebuking  all  our  sins,  humbling  all 
our  vanity,  purging  all  our  hopes,  and  cementing  among 
ourselves  a  just  and  lasting  brotherhood,  that  Lincoln 
found  the  heart  to  hope  for  perpetual  fraternity  through 
all  the  world.  Within  his  wish  deep-wrought,  hard-earned, 
clear-eyed  wisdom  was  crystallized.  It  was  an  imperial 
proposition,  momentous,  comprehensive,  profound.  It 
embodied  nothing  less  than  a  political  philosophy. 

But  these  assertions  demand  a  closer  scrutiny.  Does 
Lincoln's  thought,  in  scope  and  mode,  deserve  in  any 
sense  to  be  entitled  a  philosophy?  In  soberness,  is  any 
such  pretension  justified?  Are  Lincoln's  principles  so 
radical,  so  comprehensive,  so  well-ordered,  as  to  deserve 
a  title  so  supreme? 

All  turns  on  truly  understanding  Lincoln's  apprehension 
of  reality.  Lincoln's  world  was  a  society  of  persons. 


160  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

God,  himself,  his  fellowman  engrossed  his  thought  and 
interest.  Among  all  persons,  as  seen  and  known  by 
him,  there  was  a  full  affinity.  All  men  were  equal,  and 
all  were  kindred  to  the  great  God.  This  was  the  starting 
point,  this  the  circuit,  and  this  the  goal  of  all  his  conscious 
thought  and  toil.  This  was  his  world.  To  penetrate  its 
nature  was  to  handle  elements.  To  grasp  those  elements 
was  to  be  inclusive.  And  to  comprehend  their  native 
correlation  was  to  master  fundamental  wisdom. 

Here  Lincoln  shows  his  mental  strength.  Among  all 
these  elements  he  traced  a  fundamental  similarity.  A 
common  pattern  embraced  them  all.  The  highest  and 
the  lowest  were  essentially  alike.  All  were  dowered  with 
kindred  capacities  for  nobility.  He  never  suffered  him 
self  or  any  of  his  fellowmen  to  forget  his  own  elevation 
from  lowliest  ignorance  and  poverty  to  the  presidency. 
However  humble,  all  could  rise.  However  ignorant,  all 
could  learn.  However  unbefriended,  all  deserved  regard. 
Life  and  liberty  and  happiness  were  a  common  boon,  an 
even,  universal  right.  For  fellowship  with  God,  even 
when  buffeted  beneath  divine  rebukes,  all  might  hope. 
The  ultimate,  open  possibility  of  such  divine  companion 
ship  is  shown  in  this  last  inaugural,  where  Lincoln's  keen 
discernment  avails  to  comprehend,  that  even  sinning  men 
may,  through  penitent  acceptance  of  heaven's  rebukes, 
win  heaven's  favor  and  walk  with  God.  Thus  Lincoln 
learned  and  knew  that  among  all  men,  and  between  all 
men  and  God  there  was  a  fundamental  ground  of  imperish 
able  affiance.  Here  lies  the  foundation  of  his  philosophy. 

And  this  affiance  was  in  its  being  moral.  With  him  the 
real  was  ethical.  Pure  equity  was  the  primal  verity. 
By  character  were  all  things  judged.  Politics  and  ethics 
were  identical.  In  the  thought  of  Lincoln  the  qualities 
constituting  our  American  Union,  the  qualities  that  de- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  161 

fined  and  contained  its  very  being,  the  qualities  that  made 
it  a  civic  entity,  securing  to  it  its  coherence  and  perpetui 
ty,  the  qualities  guaranteeing  that  it  should  not  dissolve 
and  disappear  in  the  fate  and  wreck  of  all  decaying  things, 
the  qualities  that  made  it  worth  the  faithful  care  of  God 
and  the  loving  loyalty  of  men,  were  identical  with  the 
qualities  constituting  himself  a  free,  responsible  soul.  The 
same  humble  reverence,  the  same  mutual  goodwill,  the 
same  regard  for  durability,  the  same  jealousy  for  integrity 
as  informed  his  personal  conscience  and  inspired  his 
personal  will,  should  form  the  law  and  determine  the  deeds 
of  the  Nation  as  well,  if  the  Nation  was  ever  to  have  in 
its  civic  being  a  dignity  worthy  to  survive.  Here  is  a 
standard  conformable  at  once  with  the  measure  of  things 
in  heaven,  the  measure  of  a  Nation,  and  the  measure  of 
every  man. 

Such  is  the  scope  of  this  inaugural.  In  penning  that 
grave  paragraph  touching  "unrequited  toil,"  Lincoln  had 
his  eye  alike  upon  the  individual  slave,  upon  the  Nation 
as  a  whole,  upon  long  centuries,  and  upon  the  ways  of 
God.  It  may  be  said  with  equal  truth  that  he  was  pon 
dering  the  sin  and  hurt  of  a  single  act  of  fraud,  the  vital 
structure  of  organic  civic  life,  the  continual  tenure  of 
right  and  guilt  through  lives  and  times  that  seem  diverse, 
and  the  unison  of  moral  estimates  that  hold  with  God 
and  men  alike  forever.  This  may  not  be  denied.  The 
sin  inflicted  in  a  single  wrong,  like  that  of  slavery,  may 
implicate  a  Nation  in  a  guilt  that,  under  the  impartial 
and  upright  rule  of  God,  the  centuries  cannot  obliterate. 
Inhuman  scorn,  short-sighted  greed,  disloyalty  and  cruel 
ty,  however  disguised,  or  however  upheld,  entail  a  doom 
too  certain  and  too  sovereign  for  the  centuries  to  unduly 
defer,  or  for  any  nation  to  ever  annul. 

Here  are  principles  undeniably.     And  as  undeniably 


162  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

these  principles  are  supreme.  A  just  God  is  over  all. 
To  his  high  purposes  all  things,  even  the  most  perverse, 
must  eventually  conform.  To  his  right  rule  even  un 
righteous  men  must  bend.  Into  intelligent  harmony  with 
his  will  all  upright  men  may  come,  finding  in  lowly  ac 
knowledgment  of  his  great  majesty  their  true  dignity,  in 
loyalty  to  his  pure  righteousness  their  own  complete 
integrity,  in  imitation  of  his  universal  benignity  their 
perfect  mutual  friendliness,  and  in  a  vision  of  his  eternal 
purity  their  assurance  of  personal  and  civic  perpetuity. 
Thus  in  the  midst  of  all  being,  and  in  the  conscious  presence 
of  Him  in  whom  all  being  finds  its  source,  our  personal, 
human  being  finds  its  transcendent  dignity  and  crown. 
Living  thus,  and  living  thus  together,  men  find  life  indeed. 
Thus  all,  endowed  alike  with  the  common  sanctity  of  life, 
enjoying  equally  the  common  right  to  liberty,  share 
equally  a  common  boon  of  happiness.  Thus  each  man 
alone  and  thus  the  civic  order  as  a  whole  may  survive  and 
flourish  under  God  in  just  and  lasting  peace. 

This,  in  Lincoln's  thought,  was  final,  comprehensive 
truth.  Taken  in  all  its  foursquare  amplitude  and  unison, 
there  was  nothing  human  it  did  not  avail  to  fitly  arrange 
and  fully  circumscribe.  Whether  for  man  alone  or  for 
men  in  leagues,  whether  for  States  supreme  or  for  States 
confederate,  it  provided  every  needful  guide  and  bond. 
As  for  the  international  arena,  so  for  every  lesser  realm  of 
social  life,  the  principles  enshrined  in  this  inaugural  are 
civic  wisdom  crystallized.  They  proffer  to  our  human 
social  life  nothing  less  than  a  philosophy. 

This  is  the  wisdom  literally  inscribed  upon  the  tablet 
of  this  last  inaugural.  To  unveil  its  face  before  an  ever 
heedful  and  ever  more  attentive  world  is  being  found  a 
sovereign  function  of  succeeding  time.  Men  are  ever 
learning,  but  have  ever  yet  to  learn  what  Lincoln  was. 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  163 

Despite  his  fame,  his  proper  glory  has  been  veiled.  His 
features  have  been  shadowed,  almost  smirched.  His 
reputation  has  been  overlaid  with  rumours  and  reports 
of  excessive  pleasure  in  ribald,  rollicking  hours  in  wayside 
inns.  But  in  his  very  laughter  there  were  deep  hints  of 
measured  soberness.  Seasoned  wisdom  flavored  all  his 
wit.  His  very  folly  was  profound.  But  when  his  mood 
of  frolic  passed,  when,  and  almost  without  any  inner 
change,  his  outer  mien  grew  serious,  and  sadness  brooded 
on  his  face,  then  his  speech  was  fed  from  nether  springs. 
Then  his  lips  were  freighted  from  afar,  and  his  speech  was 
rich  with  precious  lore. 

In  his  inmost  instinct  Lincoln  was  a  philosopher.  Out 
of  life's  complexities  he  was  always  searching  for  its  clue. 
His  speeches  deal  at  bottom  with  nothing  but  details. 
But  out  of  the  mesh  of  those  details  he  was  always  weaving 
principles.  It  is  this  that  gives  his  words  their  weight. 
He  is  by  his  own  right  a  true  philosopher.  It  was  true 
wisdom  with  which  he  dealt.  With  true  wisdom  he  was 
in  love.  In  his  own  character  he  has  garnered  all  his 
gains.  By  self-refinement  he  has  become  a  Nation's 
pattern.  In  himself  are  treasured  all  the  honors,  digni 
ties,  and  rewards  that  appertain  to  a  worthy  devotee 
of  wisdom.  Assuredly,  and  beyond  all  fair  dispute,  the 
author  of  this  last  inaugural,  when  fairly  measured  and 
esteemed  for  what  he  was,  and  what  he  did,  and  what  he 
overcame  in  civic  realms  by  sheer  original  reseach,  far 
more  than  any  Dr.  Faust,  deserves  his  doctorate  and 
degree.  In  sober  verity  the  author  of  this  inaugural  is 
true  Doctor  of  Philosophy. 


164  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

His  THEODICY — THE  PROBLEM  OF  EVIL 

THE  last  preceding  chapter  closed  with  an  allusion  to 
Dr.  Faust.  That  reference  may  now  be  profitably  re 
sumed.  Goethe's  Faust  is  introduced  as  in  deep  un 
easiness  before  the  unsolved  mysteries  of  life.  He  is 
described  as  having  mastered  all  that  all  the  Faculties  can 
give,  but  all  to  no  sure  end,  and  as  being  then  beguiled 
into  other  paths  and  scenes,  there  to  prosecute  afresh 
his  quest  for  present  satisfaction.  In  this  new  quest  he 
accepts  the  guidance  of  a  scorner  into  realms  of  magic, 
sorcery,  and  witchcraft;  into  scenes  of  ribaldry,  debauch 
ery,  and  basest  sordidness;  into  lust,  murder,  and  treach 
erous  unfaithfulness;  into  a  devilish  trade  for  present 
carnal  happiness,  at  cost  of  freedom,  reason,  and  any 
heed  for  future  destiny. 

One  notable  feature  in  all  this  quest  is  its  submergence 
in  the  sea  of  things  that  surge  up  around  the  passing  life, 
only  to  pass  away  themselves  and  disappear.  His  riddles 
and  his  quests,  his  ideals  and  delights  are  largely  physical. 
His  guide  does  not  conduct  him  into  the  steadfast  presence 
and  observation  of  things  permanent  and  spiritual.  He 
is  prone  to  make  him  roam  in  realms  of  magic,  where 
forms  and  deeds  are  too  thin  and  vague  to  be  even  shadows, 
and  too  false  to  be  even  artificial,  but  where  yet  each 
scene  excites  the  imagination  to  perishing  desires  for  joys 
of  sense.  Carnal  potions,  charms,  and  lust;  physical 
tumults  and  delights  so  largely  occupy  the  central  place 
in  all  the  scenes,  that  the  riddles  Faust  would  fain  re 
solve  are,  to  a  large  degree,  the  mysteries  of  the  universe 
of  sense. 

Now  let  any  man  compare  the  major  problems  in  the 
mind  of  Goethe's  Faust  with  the  problems  that  Lincoln 
felt  to  be  supreme.  One  discovers  instantly  a  vast  diver- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  165 

gence.  Themes  and  questions,  that  to  the  very  end  of 
Goethe's  life  perplexed  and  vexed  his  thought,  were  in 
Lincoln's  writings  not  so  much  as  named. 

But  far  beyond  all  this.  The  vast,  unwieldly  world  of 
solid  sense,  so  baffling,  but  so  sure,  now  so  terrible,  and 
now  so  kind,  now  serving,  and  now  crushing  boastful, 
trembling  man,  now  begetting,  and  now  absorbing  endless, 
countless  generations  and  multitudes,  seems  not  to  con 
stitute  a  vexing  or  perplexing  theme  in  Lincoln's  most 
insistent  thought.  This  can  never  be  explained  as  due 
to  a  painless,  care-free,  earthly  lot;  nor  to  a  pampering 
environment;  nor  to  physical  stolidity;  nor  to  incapacity 
for  aesthetic  joys.  The  lines  that  seamed  his  face,  the 
muscles  that  leashed  his  frame,  the  structure  of  his  hands, 
the  meaning  message  upon  his  lips,  his  shadowed,  sobered, 
brooding  eyes  attest  a  different  tale.  Lincoln  was  suffi 
ciently  aware  of  the  plain  and  common  sorrows  incident  to 
our  earthly  environment.  He  knew  what  havoc  cold  and 
heat,  hunger  and  pain,  toil  and  want,  plague  and  death 
could  visit  upon  our  human  life.  But  none  of  these  things 
seemed  to  trouble  him.  So  engrossed  was  he  with  ques 
tions  he  called  "durable,"  that  all  physical  discomforts 
and  distresses,  with  their  connected  pleasures  and  desires 
and  hopes  and  fears,  were  but  passing,  minor  incidents. 

This  undoubted  fact  in  Lincoln's  mental  habitude  is  a 
signal  and  significant  factor,  to  be  held  in  careful  estima 
tion  in  a  final  judgment  of  Lincoln's  character.  Ethics, 
pure  ethics,  themes  that  dealt  with  realms  where  man  is 
truly  responsible  and  truly  free,  were  his  supreme  con 
cern  from  first  to  last.  And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  the 
problem,  which  for  him  is  truly  fundamental  and  ultimate, 
passes  wholly  by  at  once  all  that  burden  of  so-called  evil, 
in  the  fear  and  hurt  and  mystery  of  things  inflexible,  and 


166  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

clings  fast  hold  of  things  alone  that  are  responsible  and 
free. 

Touching  the  theme  of  this  chapter,  and  touching  also 
this  last  inaugural,  the  following  letter,  written  March  15, 
1865,  to  Thurlow  Weed,  already  cited  and  considered  once, 
deserves  a  bit  of  heed  again: — 

"Every  one  likes  a  compliment.  Thank  you  for  yours 
on  my  little  notification  speech  and  on  the  recent  inaugural 
address.  I  expect  the  latter  to  wear  as  well  as — perhaps 
better  than — anything  I  have  produced;  but  I  believe  it 
is  not  immediately  popular.  Men  are  not  flattered  by 
being  shown  that  there  is  a  difference  of  purpose  between 
the  Almighty  and  them.  To  deny  it  however,  in  this  case, 
is  to  deny  that  there  is  a  God  governing  the  world.  It 
is  a  truth  which  I  thought  needed  to  be  told,  and,  as 
whatever  of  humiliation  there  is  in  it  falls  most  directly 
on  myself,  I  thought  others  might  afford  for  me  to  tell  it. 

Truly  yours, 

A.  LINCOLN." 

This  letter  shows  what  Lincoln  judged  to  be  the  secret 
of  this  inaugural's  permanent  hold  on  human  approbation. 
It  was  its  humble  testimony  to  the  fact  that,  amidst  and 
above  the  errors  and  sins,  the  struggles  and  failures  of 
men  and  Nations,  there  is  a  world-governing  God.  Here 
opens  a  theme  that  is  truly  sovereign  and  ultimate. 

The  last  inaugural  reveals  that  Lincoln  was  closely 
pondering  two  incongruous  themes:  the  bitter  career  of 
slavery;  and  the  just  rule  of  God. 

Touching  the  first — the  fact  of  human  slavery — what 
ever  other  men  might  think,  in  Lincoln's  view  it  was  al 
ways  abhorrent,  a  primary  immorality.  He  was  naturally 
"anti-slavery."  Even  in  this  address,  guarded  against 
all  malice,  and  suffused  with  harity,  he  could  not  forbear 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  167 

from  saying: — "It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men  should 
dare  to  seek  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their 
bread  from  other  men's  faces."  Man's  right  to  live  was 
in  his  thought  primal.  That  right  carried  with  it  the 
right  to  enjoy  the  bread  that  his  own  hands  had  earned. 
Such  a  privilege  was  the  central  element  in  human  happi 
ness.  Such  felicity  was  elemental.  Such  freedom  and 
such  joy  were  the  simplest  common  boon  in  our  common, 
earthly  lot. 

The  institution  of  slavery  blasted  that  joy,  denied  that 
liberty,  robbed  that  right  to  life.  This  annihilated  hope. 
It  ranked  men  \vith  brutes.  Such  a  ravaging  of  human 
desires  and  human  rights  Lincoln  judged,  from  the  side  of 
the  slave-holder,  a  paramount  crime;  and  from  the  side  of 
the  slave,  an  insufferable  curse.  The  terrible  enormity 
of  both  crime  and  curse  was  measured  in  Lincoln's  estima 
tion  by  the  enormity  of  the  war.  Viewed  any  way,  that 
war  was  the  indication  and  register  of  the  wrong  done, 
and  the  wrong  borne,  by  men  in  the  centuries  of  slavery. 
Arrogance  and  insolence,  ruthlessness  and  cruelty,  dis 
honesty  and  faithlessness,  luxury  and  lust,  trailed  all  along 
its  path.  That,  in  a  Republic  dedicated  to  liberty,  men 
would  go  to  war  and  fight  to  the  death  with  their  fellow- 
citizens  in  defense  and  perpetuation  of  tyranny  and  bonds, 
gave  evidence  to  the  strange  and  obdurate  perverseness 
involved  and  nurtured  in  the  mood  and  attitude  of  men 
that  were  bent  on  holding  fellow  men  as  slaves.  The 
existence  of  such  an  institution  in  any  land  Lincoln  deemed 
a  national  calamity;  in  a  free  Republic  he  felt  it  to  be  a 
heaven-braving  anomaly  and  affront.  It  was  a  flagrant 
evil,  bound  to  bring  down  woe. 

But  in  the  deep  entanglements  of  history  this  baleful 
institution  had  to  be  condoned,  even  in  this  land  made 
sacred  to  the  free.  Inbred  within  the  Nation  in  the 


168  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

Nation's  very  birth,  that  it  be  sheltered  within  the  Na 
tion's  life  became  a  national  responsibility.  From  this 
firm  bond  Lincoln  himself  could  not  escape.  In  the 
Constitution  that  Lincoln  swore  to  uphold,  when  first  he 
took  the  presidency,  slavery  was  sheltered,  if  not  en 
trenched.  As  chief  magistrate  of  the  whole  Republic, 
however  obnoxious  slavery  might  be,  he  had  the  obnoxious 
thing  to  protect.  This  he  freely  admitted,  and  explicitly 
declared  in  his  first  inaugural. 

Here  was  the  beginning  of  his  final,  moral  debate. 
How  should  he  morally  justify  himself  in  defending  what 
he  morally  abhorred?  That  this  dual  attitude  should  be 
assumed  he  seemed  fully  to  concede.  This  shows  most 
clearly,  and  in  its  sharpest  moral  contradiction,  when, 
in  his  first  inaugural,  he  volunteered  to  permit  an  amend 
ment  to  the  Constitution,  enacting,  as  the  supreme  law 
of  the  land,  that  slavery  should  remain  thereafter  undis 
turbed  forever.  How  he  brought  his  mind  to  take  that 
stand  has  never  been  made  clear.  He  said  in  that  con 
nection  that  such  an  amendment  was  in  effect  already 
Constitutional  law.  But  previous  to  that  date  he  had 
always  pledged  and  urged  forbearance  with  slavery,  on 
the  understanding  that  such  forbearance  was  only  for  a 
time;  that,  as  foreseen  and  designed  by  the  men  who 
framed  the  Constitution,  slave  holding  was  always  to  be 
so  handled,  as  to  be  always  on  the  way  to  disappear.  It 
is  not  easy  to  see  how  a  man,  to  whom  the  practice  of 
holding  slaves  was  so  morally  repellent,  could  participate 
in  making  it  perpetual.  One  could  wish  that  just  this 
problem  had  been  frankly  handled  under  Lincoln's  pen. 
It  must  have  been  plainly  before  his  thought.  And  the 
words  of  few  men  would  be  more  worthy  of  careful  record 
and  review  than  deliberate  words  from  Lincoln  upon  this 
world -perplexing  query: — how  adjust  one's  thoughts  and 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  169 

acts  to  a  moral  evil,  that  inveterately  endures,  and  is 
never  atoned?  But  in  fact  that  amendment  was  never 
carried  through.  One  of  the  fruits  of  slavery  was  its  rash 
unwisdom  at  just  this  juncture. 

Still,  though  the  amendment  lapsed,  slavery  held  on. 
And  slaveholders  tightened  their  resolution  to  retain 
their  rights  in  slaves,  or  rend  the  Union.  This  precipi 
tated  war.  This  may  seem  to  have  doubled  Lincoln's 
problem,  slavery  and  national  dissolution.  Standing  at 
the  apex  of  national  responsibility,  he  had  to  bear  the 
hottest  brunt  of  the  physical  anguish,  the  mental  per 
plexity,  and  the  moral  sorrows  of  a  war  waged  by  a  slave- 
holding  South  in  militant  secession.  But  in  reality,  in 
his  thought,  the  two  were  one.  All  turned  on  slavery. 
This  was  the  burning  blemish  in  the  Constitution.  This 
was  the  intent  of  the  war.  This  was  the  burden  on  his 
heart.  Here  was  a  load  too  grievous  for  any  man  to 
bear.  It  bore  preponderantly  on  him.  And  yet,  as 
regards  any  personal  and  conscious  desire  or  deed,  he  was 
through  and  in  it  all  conscious  within  himself  of  inno 
cence.  His  trial  and  sorrow  were  without  cause.  How 
now,  in  his  soberest  thought,  was  all  this  moral  confusion 
explained?  Hating  slavery  with  all  his  heart,  innocent 
all  his  life  of  any  inclination  to  rob  another  man  of  liberty, 
but  pledged  and  sworn  to  shelter  slavery  under  the  arm 
of  his  supreme  and  free  authority,  how  could  he  prove 
himself  consistent  morally? 

Here  emerge  the  profoundest  thoughts  of  Lincoln  on 
the  ways  of  God.  And  herein  appears  his  contribution 
to  a  theodicy — a  vindication  of  God's  moral  honor,  where 
his  moral  government  seems  slack.  How  can  thoughtful 
men  conceive  and  hold  that  God  is  just,  when  such  in 
justice  and  disaster  are  allowed  at  all,  much  less  for  cen- 


170  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

turies;  in  any  corner  of  the  earth,  much  less  where  heaven's 
favor  seems  to  dwell? 

Upon  this  subduing  theme  this  last  inaugural  gives  us 
Lincoln's  most  explicit  words.  Of  God's  personal  being, 
and  of  his  personal  care,  this  address  shows  Lincoln  to  be 
perfectly  assured.  This  was  his  standing  attitude  and 
confidence.  Throughout  his  years  in  the  presidency  this 
trust  had  seemed  unwavering.  Indeed,  by  repeated, 
almost  unconscious  attestations,  it  was  his  stablest  trust. 
Some  of  his  utterances  are  tender  and  touching  testimoni 
als  to  his  belief  that  God  rules  in  his  own  personal  career. 
But  mainly  his  confessions  of  belief  in  the  Providence 
of  God  are  connected  with  national  concerns.  He  did 
joyfully,  almost  jubilantly  believe  that  this  Republic 
was  under  God's  special  watch  and  care.  His  own  hope 
for  our  national  future  well-being  and  honor  rested  mainly, 
we  must  judge,  upon  the  tokens  he  thought  he  could  trace 
in  our  thrilling  and  inspiring  history  of  the  divine  con 
trolling  care.  At  bottom  it  was  this  faith  that  underlay 
all  his  patriotism.  That  the  fundamental  affirmations  of 
our  Constitution  were  rescripts  and  digests  from  the  will 
and  word  of  God  was  the  lively  ground  and  unfailing 
confirmation  of  his  pure  devotion  to  his  Nation's  honor 
and  weal.  More  than  aught  in  all  the  world  beside,  it 
was  this  religious  faith  that  steadied  and  girded  his  will 
through  all  those  strenuous  days. 

It  is  just  here  that  this  study  of  a  theodicy  sets  in. 
Above  all  his  former  thoughts  about  himself,  about  his 
land,  about  the  clash  of  right  and  wrong;  above  all  thoughts 
of  other  men,  and  other  times;  even  above  his  own  and 
his  opponents'  former  prayers  and  faith,  he  lifts  new 
thoughts  in  new  reverence  and  new  docility  towards 
God. 

Still  naught  but  slavery  in  his  theme — its  undeniable 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  171 

iniquity;  its  strange,  prolonged  permission;  his  own,  and 
all  other  men's  responsibility;  its  unavoidable  entail  in 
penalty;  and  the  divine,  enduring  terms  of  new  liberty 
and  peace.  Here  are  themes  and  fixed  realities  that  seem 
eternally  to  disagree.  Can  they  ever  all  be  morally  har 
monized?  Could  even  God  enlighten  that  dark  past? 
Could  his  own  historic  acts  be  morally  unified?  Nothing 
he  had  ever  done  with  slavery,  not  even  its  utter  elimina 
tion  in  his  act  of  freedom,  had  ever  been  done,  he  ex 
plicitly  affirmed,  on  moral  grounds.  Yet  slavery,  and 
by  his  own  hand,  was  indeed  undone.  But  even  so  the 
spirit  of  the  South  was  still  invincible,  and  war  was  hold 
ing  on.  What  indeed  could  be  the  thoughts  and  plans  of 
God? 

To  begin  with,  he  confesses  both  North  and  South  and 
all  the  land  gone  wrong.  This  is  the  first  component 
in  his  theodicy.  Neither  North  nor  South,  not  even  in 
the  act  of  prayer,  had  walked  with  God,  nor  found  the 
truth,  nor  gained  its  wish.  All  thoughts  of  men,  in  the 
righteous  rule  of  God,  were  being  overturned.  This  con 
fession  verges  near  to  worship,  acclaiming,  as  it  does,  the 
Almighty's  designs;  and  venturing  as  it  does,  to  trace  and 
reproduce  the  Almighty's  thoughts. 

Here  is  seen  how  genuine  is  the  moral  earnestness  in 
Lincoln's  earnest  thoughtfulness.  As  though  by  a  very 
instinct,  his  form  of  words  betrays  his  reverence.  He 
refrains  from  dogmatism.  He  refrains  even  from  affirma 
tion.  He  knows  he  is  venturing  upon  a  daring  flight. 
He  is  assuming  to  conjoin  together  into  a  moral  unison 
that  bitter  sample  of  the  age-long  cruelty  of  man  against 
his  brother,  and  the  transcendent  sovereignty,  the  eternal 
justice,  and  the  age-long  silence  of  God.  His  formula  is 
a  modest  supposition.  But  within  its  modesty  is  an  eye 
that  searches  far. 


172  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

He  takes  resort  in  one  of  the  most  trenchant  declara 
tions  of  Christ,  that  momentous  saying  in  his  colloquy 
about  the  majesty  and  modesty  of  a  little  child: — "Woe 
unto  the  world  because  of  offenses!  for  it  must  needs  be 
that  offenses  come;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
offense  cometh." 

In  this  colloquy  Jesus  seems  to  be  moved  by  a  tender 
impulse  of  affectionate  jealousy  for  the  model  beauty  and 
grace  of  children.  But  that  tenderness  is  roused  into  one 
of  the  most  terrific  outbursts  that  ever  passed  his  lips. 
Little  children  are  Christlike,  Godlike,  models  of  the 
citizenship  in  the  heavenly  Kingdom.  God  is  their  jealous 
guardian  and  defender.  But  Godlike,  and  of  heavenly 
dignity  though  they  be,  they  are  shy  and  frail.  And  men, 
as  they  grow  gross  and  impudent,  abuse  and  offend  their 
defenselessness.  So  things  have  to  be.  But  woe  to 
such  offenders.  They  were  better  tied  to  that  mammoth 
stone  that  the  mule  turns  in  the  mill,  and  submerged  in 
the  abyss  of  the  deep  of  the  great  sea. 

Here  are  four  noteworthy  elements : — a  blended  heaven 
ly  modesty  and  majesty  and  innocence;  an  insufferable 
insolence;  a  trebly-terrible  penalty;  and  a  strange  and 
ominous  necessity. 

Over  these  four  factors  Lincoln's  mind  must  have 
pondered  long.  Else  how  explain  their  place  in  this 
inaugural?  They  form  the  foundation  of  its  central 
paragraph,  and  constitute  its  paramount  argument; 
forming  alike  a  sobering  admonition,  and  a  humble  ground 
of  hope  to  all  the  Nation,  while  at  the  same  time  holding 
aloft  before  the  Nation's  thought  the  outline  and  substance 
of  a  stately  vindication  of  the  ways  of  God.  Evidently 
here  is  shapely  fashioning  in  lucid  speech  of  Lincoln's 
ripest,  surest  thought.  As  one  faces  all  its  range,  it  seems 
like  the  open  sky,  clear  but  fathomless.  But  its  wisdom 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  173 

is  doubly  sealed,  and  it  bears  a  double  claim  to  our  respect. 
It  shows  the  way  of  Lincoln's  mind,  and  the  way  of  the 
mind  of  Christ.  Not  quickly  will  any  other  thinker, 
however  disciplined,  traverse  all  its  course.  But  travel 
where  he  will  in  the  mighty  orbit  of  this  inquiry,  the 
modern  thinker,  whatever  his  attainment,  may  find  in 
this  inaugural  shining  indications  that  Lincoln's  thought 
has  gone  before. 

In  this  modest,  far-searching  supposition,  transferred 
to  American  history  from  the  lips  of  Christ,  Lincoln 
firmly  grasps  two  solid  facts,  elemental  and  universal  in 
human  life: — the  beautiful  modesty  of  the  meek;  and  the 
ugly  arrogance  in  the  strong.  Strength  and  weakness 
needs  must  be.  These  invite  to  rudeness  and  retreat. 
Then  the  powerful  overbear.  The  gentle  are  overborne. 
Offenses  multiply.  The  arrogant  prevail.  So  must  it 
be.  But  when  the  meek  go  down  beneath  the  wicked 
rudeness  of  the  strong,  then  the  Most  High  God,  within 
whose  firm  dominion  both  strong  and  weak  share  equally 
in  all  the  privileges  and  rights  of  liberty  and  law,  sets  over 
the  offended  one  his  shield,  and  against  the  proud  offender 
his  sword,  until  pity  and  equity  are  enthroned  upon  the 
earth  again.  Thus  must  it  be.  The  meek  must  suffer. 
Offenders  must  arise.  But  meekness  is  a  heavenly,  God 
like  quality.  And  as  with  God,  so  with  his  gentle  little 
ones,  patient  gentleness  will  be  duly  vindicated;  rude 
arrogance  will  meet  exact  and  fit  rebuke;  and  it  will  stand 
clear  that  strength  and  weakness  may  dwell  together  in 
equity  and  liberty  and  peace. 

This  was  the  age-long  moral  process  which  Lincoln's 
eye  discerned,  and  the  final  issue  which  his  expectation 
hailed.  Then  and  therein  his  eye  discerned  that  all 
voices  would  be  constrained  to  proclaim  that  in  all  the 
moral  world  pity  and  equity  were  prevalent;  that  the 


174  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

least  had  Godlike  majesty;  that  humility  gave  to  all  the 
great  their  courtliness;  and  that  there  was  within  all  men 
a  fadeless  worth,  far  outranking  all  other  wealth. 

But  it  is  essential  to  note,  not  alone  that  Lincoln  offers 
this  in  the  modest  form  of  supposition;  but  that,  as  it 
leaves  his  lips,  it  assumes  the  formula  of  a  confession. 
Even  the  meek  receive  rebuke.  The  gentlest  have  wan 
dered  also  away  from  God.  The  problem  has  surpassed 
us  all.  All  have  somewhat  to  learn  from  God.  That 
arrogance  may  meet  its  due,  meekness  must  be  yet  more 
meek.  It  must  needs  be  that  offenses  come.  Greater 
than  all  our  wrong,  and  all  our  patience,  is  the  patient 
truth  of  God.  This  must  be  fully  learned.  It  is  under 
wrong  that  wrong  is  made  right.  It  is  by  meekness 
under  arrogance  that  arrogance  is  put  to  shame.  It  is 
by  gentleness  under  rudeness  that  rudeness  is  subdued. 
Offenses  must  needs  be.  Only  in  sacrificial  submission  to 
its  woe  is  the  problem  of  evil  ever  resolved.  Only  thus 
is  the  iniquity  of  the  sin  measured  back  upon  the  evil 
doer  in  a  symmetrical  and  equivalent  rebuke. 

But  this  is  never  to  exculpate  the  offender  or  condone 
the  offense.  Blood  with  the  sword,  drop  for  drop,  must 
be  meted  out  to  the  slaveholder,  as  he  meted  out  to  the 
slave  blood  with  the  lash.  All  the  wealth  that  the  bonds 
man's  lord  has  snatched  from  the  toiling  slave  must  be 
yielded  up.  Over  human  scorn  and  greed  and  injustice 
and  cruelty  hang  unfailingly  judgments  that  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether.  Neither  may  they  who  are  offended 
rail,  nor  they  who  offend  exult,  over  the  divine  delay. 
Nor  when  God's  judgments  fall  may  they  who  are  rebuked 
complain,  nor  they  who  are  redeemed  turn  exultation 
into  arrogance.  God's  ways,  and  his  alone  are  even,  and 
altogether  true. 

In  thoughts  like  these  Lincoln's  final  explanation  of  the 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  175 

ways  of  God  took  form.  In  patient,  repentant,  adoring 
acquiescence  his  heart  found  rest.  His  sorrows  were 
profound,  the  sorrows  of  a  patriot,  kinsman  to  all  the 
sorrowful  in  the  land.  But  he  learned,  however  deep  the 
stroke,  to  forbear  complaint.  He  received  the  sorrows  of 
the  war  into  his  own  breast  as  heaven's  righteous  woe 
upon  a  haughty  land,  and  as  heaven's  discipline,  teaching 
offenders  the  woe  of  their  offense.  So  his  ways  became 
coincident  with  the  greater  ways  of  God. 

But  in  this  moral  explication  of  the  war,  and  of  all  that 
the  war  involves,  two  vastly  different  types  of  character 
persist.  Lincoln's  solution  of  the  enigma  was  in  diametri 
cal  contrast  with  the  views  of  the  leading  spirits  of  the 
South.  Not  like  him  did  they  rate  slavery,  nor  conceive 
the  war,  nor  understand  the  ways  of  God.  How,  now, 
could  Lincoln's  view  assimilate  this  obduracy  in  the 
South?  This  question  was  clearly  within  the  scope  of 
Lincoln's  thought,  and  its  answer  is  embraced  in  what  has 
already  been  explained.  Given  an  even  penalty  for  any 
sin,  drop  for  drop  with  the  avenging  sword  for  blood  with 
the  lash,  and  it  is  morally  indifferent  whether  men  rail, 
or  whether  they  acquiesce.  The  wrong  is  made  right. 
The  meek  are  redeemed.  God's  delay  is  vindicated. 
Rudeness  is  reversed.  The  law  is  fully  revealed.  Man's 
liberty  is  honored  equally.  Cruelty  and  unfairness  are 
rebuked.  The  gains  of  greed  are  scattered.  Humblest 
men  are  crowned  with  eternal  dignity.  To  such,  whether 
from  the  North  or  from  the  South,  as  with  melting  sorrow 
and  repentance  welcomed  to  their  bosoms  this  bitter 
vindication  of  those  primal  rights,  the  sorrows  of  the  war 
opened  into  perennial  peace.  To  such  as  repelled  that 
proffered  vindication,  there  was  in  the  sorrows  of  the  war 
no  alleviation.  But  for  both,  nevertheless,  and  for  both 
identically,  the  sorrows  of  the  wp,r  completed  the  moral 


176  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

vindication  of  a  pure  and  Christlike  equity  and  friendli 
ness.  Thus  all  the  ways  of  God,  with  the  repentant  and 
the  rebellious  alike,  are  just  and  righteous  altogether. 
This  it  is  the  highest  wisdom  of  men  to  acquiescently 
confess.  To  this  even  those  who  rebelliously  complain 
and  rail  must  finally  utterly  submit. 

And  now  one  final  matter  remains — the  idea  and  defini 
tion  of  happiness.  When  men  discuss  the  problem  of 
evil  in  the  universe,  and  in  its  awful  presence  try  to  sub 
stantiate  their  confidence  in  the  just  and  friendly  care  of 
a  transcendent  Deity,  one  subtle  touchstone  governs  all 
they  say: — What  is  their  conception  of  human  weal,  and 
of  human  woe?  What  in  actual  fact  is  deepest  misery; 
and  what  is  true  felicity?  What  do  they  assume  man's 
highest  good  to  be? 

Just  here  is  wide  and  multiform  diversity.  For  illus 
tration,  let  thought  recur  to  the  contrast  with  which  the 
topic  of  this  chapter  was  introduced.  The  idea  of  happi 
ness  that  Goethe  plants  in  Dr.  Faust,  and  the  idea  of 
happiness  that  ruled  in  Lincoln,  are  as  separate  as  the 
poles.  And  again,  to  keep  within  the  setting  of  this 
inaugural,  the  happiness  towards  which  Lincoln  strove, 
and  in  which  his  thought  found  satisfaction,  contrasted 
mightily  with  the  happiness  that  informed  the  aspirations 
of  the  leaders  of  the  South.  In  their  ideal,  disdain  of  all 
inferiors,  delight  in  easy  luxury,  unequal  acknowledg 
ment  of  rights,  and  a  cruel  stifling  of  the  very  rudiments 
of  love,  were  mixed  and  working  mightily.  Desiring  and 
enjoying  that  Elysium,  their  estimate  of  evil,  their  defini 
tion  of  the  highest  good,  and  their  programme  for  a  final 
consummation  under  God  could  have  no  fellowship  with 
any  final  plan  of  thought  approved  by  Lincoln. 

What  was  Lincoln's  highest  happiness?  This  merits 
pondering  anywhere;  but  compellingly,  where  one  tries 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  177 

to  trace  his  views  upon  this  problem  of  theodicy;  and  yet 
still  more  when  one  conceives  in  this  inquiry  how  in 
Lincoln's  life  his  ethics,  his  civics,  and  his  religion  became 
coincident. 

As  this  mighty  problem  resolves  itself  in  Lincoln's 
mind,  it  comprehends,  along  with  his  own  welfare  and 
worth  and  true  contentment,  the  equal  dignity  and  happi 
ness  of  every  other  man,  and  a  harmonious  consonance 
with  the  being  and  decree  of  God.  He  sees  that  scorn  of 
any  other  man  involves  in  time  the  scorner's  shame.  He 
sees  that  robbery,  however  veiled,  entails  a  debt  whose 
perfect  reimbursement  the  slowest  centuries  will  in  their 
time  exact.  He  sees  that  any  form  of  malice  or  unfriend 
liness,  housed  and  fed  in  any  heart,  will  forfeit  all  the  joy 
of  gratitude,  and  fill  that  heart  at  last  with  vindictive 
hate  and  bitterest  loneliness.  He  sees  that  fleshly  joys, 
however  lush  and  full,  are  marked  and  destined  for  a 
swift  and  sure  decay  and  weariness  and  vanity.  And  so, 
to  realize  the  perfect  welfare,  he  commends  to  himself, 
and  urges  persuasively  on  all  other  men,  the  sovereign 
good  of  an  even  justice,  upheld  within  himself,  and  so 
measured  out  to  other  men  by  the  perfect  standard  of 
God's  self-respecting  loyalty;  of  universal  charity,  eager 
everywhere  to  minister  universal  benefit  and  peace;  of 
supreme  enthusiasm  for  enduring  life;  and  of  a  genuine 
humility,  that  shares  all  hope  with  all  the  lowly,  and 
trusts  and  honors  God.  In  this  fourfold,  composite  uni 
son  of  conscious,  deathless  life  Lincoln  sees  the  fairest 
goal,  the  choicest  boon,  the  highest  good  of  man.  In 
the  presence  of  such  a  standard,  and  before  the  outlook 
of  such  a  hope  Lincoln  fashions  his  theodicy. 

Here  then  is  the  sum  of  Lincoln's  thought  upon  this 
bewildering  theme: — 

The  evil  that  makes  this  earthly  lot  so  dark  and  hard 


178  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

is  man's  wrong  to  man;  the  awful  sorrows  of  the  meek; 
the  offenses  wrought  upon  the  helpless  by  the  arrogant. 

Before  this  mystery  all  other  mysteries,  however  deep 
and  terrible,  such  as  hurricanes  and  famine,  plagues  and 
death,  may  not  be  named. 

This  most  sovereign  evil  is  most  clearly  understood 
by  those  who  are  oppressed.  Their  eyes  pierce  all  its 
deeps.  The  rude  are,  by  their  rudeness,  blind. 

The  names  of  all  who  suffer  and  are  still  are  registered 
on  high  for  full  solace  and  redemption. 

The  register  of  the  rudeness  of  the  strong  is  also  full, 
and  destined  for  full  requital. 

This  redemption  and  requital  shall  be  wrought  by  God. 

In  this  redemption  the  ruthless  may  relent  and  share 
with  all  the  meek  the  full  measure  of  all  their  sorrows, 
and  so  become  partakers  of  all  their  joy. 

If  ruthlessness  persist,  full  requitals  shall  still  descend, 
and  in  the  presence  of  God's  even  righteousness  every 
mouth  shall  be  stopped. 

And  so  shall  all  evil  be  fully  rectified. 

His  PIETY — THE  PROBLEM  OF  RELIGION 

OF  all  the  words  of  Lincoln,  evincing  what  he  thought 
of  God,  none  outweigh  the  witness  of  this  last  inaugural. 
His  reply  to  Thurlow  Weed  regarding  this  address,  re 
ferred  to  in  another  place,  concerned  precisely  just  this 
point — the  movements  and  the  postulates  of  his  religious 
faith.  As  his  ripened  mind  prepared  and  pondered  and 
reviewed  this  speech,  there  accrued  within  his  conscious 
ness  a  solemn  confidence  that  it  was  destined  to  become 
his  most  enduring  monument;  and  that  as  coming  genera 
tions  became  aware  of  its  outstanding  eminence,  their 
eyes  and  hearts  would  fasten  on  those  words  about  the 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  179 

age-long,  just,  and  overturning  purposes  of  God.  There 
was  a  confession,  so  Lincoln  felt  assured,  embracing  and 
conjoining  North  and  South  and  East  and  West  in  an 
equal  lowliness  and  shame;  and  declaring  and  extolling 
God's  divine  supremacy  over  all  the  erring  waywardness 
and  awful  sufferings  of  men. 

In  this  outpouring  of  his  burdened  heart  before  his 
God,  and  in  the  presence  of  his  fellowmen,  there  is  evidence 
respecting  Lincoln's  piety  that  courts  reflection. 

In  the  first  place  it  indicates  where  Lincoln's  sense  of 
moral  rectitude  found  out  its  final  bearings.  Those  pur 
poses  of  God,  as  Lincoln  watched  their  operation,  were 
working  out  the  moral  issues  in  the  awful  wrong  of  age 
long,  unrequited  toil  in  perfect  equity.  Strong  men  had 
been  wronging  weaklings  and  inferiors.  Helpless  men 
had  been  suffering  untold  sorrows.  Indignant  men  had 
been  crying  out  in  hot  and  hasty  protest  for  full  and 
speedy  vengeance.  Thoughtful  men  had  been  tortured 
over  weary,  futile  wonderings  as  to  how  the  baffling  prob 
lem  could  be  solved.  Convulsions  and  confusion,  which 
no  arm  or  thought  of  man  could  start  or  stay,  were  shak 
ing  and  bewildering  all  the  land. 

But  through  and  over  all,  as  Lincoln  came  reverently 
to  believe,  a  sovereign  God  held  righteous  government; 
and  out  of  all  the  baffling  turmoil  he  was,  by  simple  right 
eousness,  bringing  perfect  unison  and  peace.  The  dark 
mystery  of  unrequited  wrong  was  being  illuminated  by 
the  righteous  majesty  of  complete  requital.  But  in  its 
full  perfection,  it  was  a  righteousness  such  as  no  mind  of 
man  devised.  It  was  the  righteousness  of  God.  Here 
Lincoln's  moral  sense  was  purified.  He  was  being  taught 
of  God.  And  this  he  clearly,  humbly  recognized.  And 
he  took  full  pains  in  this  address  to  give  God  all  the  praise. 
And  so  his  reverence  towards  Deity,  and  his  affirmation 


180  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

touching  righteousness  became  identical.     His  sense  of 
equity  stood  clothed  in  piety. 

In  the  second  place,  deep  within  the  heart  of  these 
divine  instructions  were  such  unveilings  of  God's  high 
majesty,  in  his  steadfast  reign  above  the  passing  centu 
ries,  as  awoke  on  Lincoln's  lips  such  lowly  adoration  as 
attuned  these  words  of  Godly  statesmanship  unto  a  psalm 
of  praise.  Here  Lincoln's  lowliness  attains  consummate 
beauty.  It  is  indeed  an  utterance  of  profound  abase 
ment.  It  sinks  beneath  a  strong  rebuke.  It  acknowledges 
sad  wanderings.  It  accepts  correction,  and  meekly  takes 
God's  guiding  hand.  It  also  sees  God's  excellence,  his 
high  thoughts  and  ways,  his  irresistible  dominion,  his  moral 
spotlessness.  And  before  that  revelation  he  humbly 
walks  among  his  fellow-citizens,  the  lowliest  of  them  all, 
confessing  that  the  reproach  involved  in  what  he  said  fell 
heaviest  upon  himself;  and  therein,  as  a  priest,  leading 
the  Nation  in  an  act  of  worshipping  submissiveness  before 
the  Lord.  Herein  his  comely,  moral  modesty  becomes 
an  act  and  attitude  of  simple  reverence  towards  God. 
And  thus  his  humility,  just  like  his  sense  of  righteousness, 
becomes  apparelled  all  about  with  Godly  piety. 

In  the  third  place,  this  new  discernment  of  the  ways 
of  God  unfolds  profound  discoveries  of  the  divine  evalua 
tion  of  the  diverse,  contending  interests  in  our  commingled 
life.  It  makes  clear  which  values  fade,  and  which  shine 
on  eternally.  The  problem  upon  which  Lincoln  had 
transfixed  his  eye  was  that  two  and  one-half  centuries  of 
hard  and  sad  embondagement.  By  that  gross  sin  men's 
deathless  souls  were  bought  and  sold  for  transient  gain. 
Past  all  denial,  therein  was  moral  wrong;  else  moral 
wrong  had  no  existence.  Its  presence,  every  time  he 
faced  it,  tortured  Lincoln,  and  made  him  miserable. 
And  it  affronted  heaven,  overturning  God's  creative  fiat 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  181 

of  equality  in  all  mankind.  It  set  and  ranked  brief 
creature  comforts  and  desires  above  the  worth  of  heaven's 
image  in  a  brother  man.  Every  day  it  challenged  heaven's 
curse.  But  heaven's  judgment  was  delayed.  Long  cen 
turies  seemed  to  show  that  heaven  was  indifferent  whether 
human  souls  or  carnal  pleasures  held  superior  rank. 

But  now,  within  the  awful  tumult  of  the  war  there 
boomed  an  undertone,  conveying  unto  all  who  had  quick 
ears  to  hear,  how  God  adjudged  that  wrong.  Upon  dark 
battle  clouds  shone  heavenly  light,  making  newly  plain 
God's  estimate  of  slaveholder  and  of  slave;  of  joys  and 
gains  that  perish  with  their  use,  or  await  recall;  and  of 
souls  that  never  die.  Those  awful  tidings  told  how  ill- 
gotten,  carnal  wrealth  is  mortgaged  under  woe,  and  to 
the  uttermost  farthing  must  be  released;  how  offending 
men  affront  the  Lord;  and  how  all  offenses  must  be  aveng 
ed.  They  made  full  clear  how  he  who  grasps  at  earthly 
gain  by  wrecking  human  dignity  commits  a  primal  sin — 
a  sin  that  time,  though  it  run  into  centuries,  cannot  ob 
scure,  or  mitigate,  or  exempt  from  strict  review.  They 
reveal  infallibly  that  God's  pure  eye  is  on  God's  image 
in  every  son  of  man;  that  supreme,  far-seeing  ends  are 
lodged  in  all  the  good  but  unenduring  gifts  wherewith 
God's  wise  and  kindly  bounties  crown  man's  toil;  that  a 
perfect  moral  government  holds  dominion  everywhere 
and  forevermore;  and  that  beneath  this  rule,  in  God's 
own  time,  it  shall  come  supremely  clear  that  feasts  and 
luxury  and  fine  attire,  that  wealth  and  lust  and  pampered 
flesh  have  lesser  worth  and  pass  away,  while  souls  of  men 
may  thrive,  and  gain,  and  win  new  worth  eternally. 

As  Lincoln's  eye  reviewed  these  centuries  of  reveling 
wealth,  and  impoverished  hearts;  and  beheld,  in  the  issues 
of  the  resultant  war,  that  wealth  laid  \vaste,  and  those 
pure  hearts  fed  and  filled  with  hope  and  liberty;  his  wisdom 


182  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

to  compare  all  earth-born,  mortal  things  with  things 
unperishing  and  heavenly  passed  through  new  birth,  new 
growth  to  new  completeness  in  depth  and  clarity  and  con 
fidence.  And  all  this  gain  to  Lincoln,  while  wholly  ethi 
cal,  dealing  as  it  did  with  the  wrong  and  right  in  human 
slavery  and  liberty,  owed  all  its  increase  to  truer  under 
standing  of  the  Lord.  Here  again  his  ethics  was  purified 
by  faith.  His  faith  was  deeply  ethical.  As  with  his 
lowliness,  and  his  rectitude,  so  with  his  moral  valuation 
of  the  human  soul.  It  was  vestured  all  about  with  Godly 
piety. 

In  the  fourth  place,  within  the  awful  wreckage  of  the 
war,  with  which  this  last  inaugural  is  so  absorbed,  there 
were  mighty  attestations  that  God  was  pitiful.  That 
war  could  be  defined  as  God's  vengeance  on  man's  cruelty. 
Precisely  this  was  what  Lincoln  grew  to  see.  To  all  who 
toiled  in  slavery  the  war  had  brought  deliverance.  There 
by  the  stinging  lash  was  snatched  from  human  hands; 
the  human  heel  was  thrust  from  human  necks;  the  shame 
less  havoc  of  the  homes  of  lowly  men  was  stayed;  count 
less  sufferings  wTere  assuaged;  and  true  blessedness  was 
restored  to  souls  hard-wonted  to  unrelenting  grief. 

And  this  achievement  was  alone  the  Lord's.  Of  all 
down -trodden  men  high  heaven  became  the  champion. 
In  all  its  awful  judgments  he  who  ruled  that  conflict  re 
membered  mercy.  High  above  all  the  bloody  carnage  of 
those  swords  there  swayed  the  scepter  of  the  All-pitiful. 
In  the  very  doom  upon  the  strong  God  wrought  redemp 
tion  for  the  poor.  And  so,  as  that  dreadful  wreckage 
brought  to  nothing  all  the  pride  in  the  extorted  gain  of 
centuries,  it  published  most  impressively  that  he  who 
reigned  above  all  centuries  was  All-compassionate. 

To  this  great  thought  of  God,  Lincoln  keyed  this  last 
inaugural.  The  majesty  of  God's  sovereign  law  of  purity 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  183 

and  righteousness  was  robed  in  kindliness.  Into  this 
high  truth  ascended  Lincoln's  patriot  hope.  Let  men 
henceforth  forswear  all  cruelty,  and  follow  God  in  show 
ing  all  who  suffer  their  costliest  sympathy.  This  was  a 
mighty  longing  in  his  great  heart,  as  he  prepared  this 
speech.  Before  God's  vindication  of  the  meek,  let  the 
merciless  grow  merciful.  Yea,  let  all  the  land,  for  all  the 
land  had  taken  part  in  human  cruelty,  confess  its  wrong, 
accept  God's  scourge  without  complaint,  thus  opening 
every  heart  to  God's  free,  healing  grace,  and  binding  all 
the  land  in  leagues  of  friendliness.  Let  men,  like  God, 
be  pitiful.  Like  God,  let  men  be  merciful.  In  mutual 
sympathy  let  all  make  clear  how  men  of  every  sort  may 
yet  resemble  God,  the  All-compassionate.  This  was  the 
trend  and  strength  of  Lincoln's  gentleness,  as  it  stood  and 
wrought  in  full  maturity  beneath  God's  discipline,  with 
in  this  last  inaugural.  It  was  nothing  but  an  echo  and 
reflection  of  the  gentleness  of  God.  And  so,  in  his  benign 
ity,  as  in  his  rectitude  and  lowliness  and  purity,  he  stood 
in  this  address  attired  in  Godly  piety. 

So  Lincoln's  ethics  can  be  described,  in  his  ripened 
harvest-tide  of  life.  So  it  stands  in  this  inaugural.  It  is 
alike  a  living  code  for  daily  life,  and  a  religious  faith.  It 
is  born  and  taught  of  God.  It  is  Godliness  without  dis 
guise,  upon  the  open  field  of  civic  statesmanship.  It  is  a 
prophet's  voice,  in  a  civilian's  speech.  It  is  the  seasoned 
wisdom  of  a  man  familiar  equally  with  the  field  of  politics, 
and  the  place  of  prayer.  It  shows  how  God  may  walk 
with  men,  how  civic  interests  deal  with  things  divine. 
It  proves  that  a  civilian  in  a  foremost  seat  may  without 
apology  profess  himself  a  man  of  God,  and  gain  thereby 
in  solid  dignity.  It  shows  how  heaven  and  earth  may 
harmonize. 

But  this  manly  recognition  in  Lincoln's  mind  of  the 


184  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

inner  unison  of  ethics  and  religion  was  in  no  respect 
ephemeral,  no  careless  utterance  of  a  single  speech,  no 
flitting  sentiment  of  a  day.  It  was  the  fruitage  of  an 
ample  season's  growth.  It  was  royally  deliberate,  the 
issue  of  prolonged  reflection,  the  goal  of  mental  equipoise 
and  rest  to  which  his  searching,  balanced  thought  had 
long  conduced.  It  was  in  keeping  with  an  habitual  in 
clination  in  his  life. 

This  proclivity  of  his  inwrought  moral  honesty  to  find 
its  norm  and  origin,  its  warrant  and  secure  foundation 
in  his  and  his  Nation's  God  must  have  taken  shape  con- 
trollingly  within  those  silent  days  that  intervened  be 
tween  his  first  election  in  1860,  and  the  date  of  his  in 
augural  oath  in  1861.  Else,  in  those  brief  addresses  on 
his  way  to  Washington,  that  marvelous  efflorescence  upon 
his  honest  lips  of  an  ideal  heavenward  expectancy  is 
unaccountable.  In  those  dispered  and  fugitive  responses, 
from  Springfield  to  Independence  Hall  and  Harrisburg, 
there  breathed  such  patriotic  sentiments  of  aspiration 
and  anxiety  as  owed  their  ardor,  their  excellence,  and 
their  very  loyalty  to  his  eager  trust  and  hope,  that  all 
his  deeds  as  president  should  execute  the  will  of  God. 
Throughout  his  presidential  term  this  wish  to  make  his 
full  official  eminence  a  facile  instrument  of  God,  attains 
in  his  clear  purpose  and  intelligence  a  solid  massiveness, 
all  too  unfamiliar  in  the  craft  of  politics. 

The  witness  to  this,  in  a  letter  to  A.  G.  Hodges  of 
April,  1864,  is  most  explicit  and  unimpeachable.  This 
letter  is  a  transcript  of  a  verbal  conversation,  is  written 
by  request,  and  is  designed  distinctly  to  make  the  testi 
mony  of  his  mortal  lips  everywhere  accessible  and  perma 
nent.  Its  major  portion  aims  to  give  his  former  spoken 
words  a  simple  repetition.  Then  he  says: — "I  add  a 
word  which  was  not  in  the  verbal  conversation."  And 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  185 

upon  this  he  appends  a  paragraph,  as  of  something  he 
could  not  restrain,  the  while  he  was  conscious  perfectly 
that  what  he  was  about  to  write  was  certain  to  be  pub 
lished  and  preserved  among  all  men.  In  this  letter,  so 
doubly,  so  explicitly  deliberate,  he  is  defending  his  decree 
for  unshackling  the  slave,  by  the  plea,  that  only  so  could 
the  Union  be  preserved.  In  the  appended  paragraph,  he 
disclaims  all  compliment  to  his  own  sagacity,  and  accredits 
all  direction  and  deliverance  of  the  Nation's  life,  in  that 
dark  mortal  crisis,  to  the  hidden,  reverend  government  of 
a  kind  and  righteous  God. 

If  any  man  desires  to  probe  and  understand  the  thought- 
fulness  of  Lincoln's  piety,  let  him  place  this  doubly-pon 
dered  document  and  the  last  inaugural  side  by  side,  re 
membering  discerningly  the  date  of  each,  detecting  how 
each  conveys  Lincoln's  well-digested  judgment  of  unparal 
leled  events,  and  not  forgetting  that  Lincoln  foresaw  how 
both  those  documents  would  be  reviewed  in  generations 
to  come.  Here  are  signs  assuredly  that  Lincoln's  lowli 
ness  and  reverence,  his  prayerfulness  and  trust,  his  stead 
fastness  and  gratitude  towards  God  had  been  balanced 
and  illumined  beneath  the  livelong  cogitations  of  an  even, 
piercing  eye.  Pursuing  and  comparing  every  way  the 
tangled,  complex  facts  of  history;  the  endless  strifes  of 
men;  the  broken  lights  in  minds  most  sage;  and  the  awful 
evidence,  as  the  centuries  evolve,  that  greed  and  scorn 
and  hate  and  falsity  lead  to  woe;  his  patient  mind  grows 
poised  and  clear  in  faith  that  a  good  and  righteous  God  is 
sovereign  eternally.  The  truth  he  grasped  transcended 
centuries.  His  grasping  faith  transcends  change. 

But  Lincoln's  piety  was  not  alone  deep-rooted  and 
deliberate,  the  ripened  growth  of  mixed  and  manifold 
experience.  It  was  heroic.  It  was  the  mainspring  and 
the  inspiration  of  a  splendid  bravery.  This  is  finely 


186  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

shown  in  the  early  autumn  of  1864.  On  September  4  of 
that  year  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Gurney,  a  Quakeress. 
This  letter  bears  a  most  curious  and  intimate  resemblance 
to  the  central  substance  of  the  last  inaugural.  It  wit 
nesses  to  his  earnest  research  after  the  hidden  ways  of 
God. 

Within  this  search  he  sees  some  settled  certainties. 
He  sees  that  he  and  all  men  are  prone  to  fail,  when  they 
strive  to  perceive  what  God  intends.  Into  such  an  error 
touching  the  period  of  the  war  all  had  fallen.  God's  rule 
had  overborne  men's  hopes.  God's  wisdom  and  men's 
error  therein  would  yet  be  acknowledged  by  all.  Men, 
though  prone  to  err,  if  they  but  earnestly  work  and  humbly 
trust  in  deference  to  God,  will  therein  still  conduce  to 
God's  great  ends.  So  with  the  war.  It  was  a  commotion 
transcending  any  power  of  men  to  make  or  stay.  But  in 
God's  design  it  contained  some  noble  boon.  And  then  he 
closes,  as  he  began,  with  a  tender  intimation  of  his  reverent 
trust  in  prayer.  The  whole  is  comprehended  within  this 
single  central  sentence,  a  sentence  which  involves  and  com 
prehends  as  well  the  total  measure  of  the  last  inaugural : — 
"The  purposes  of  the  Almighty  are  perfect,  and  must 
prevail,  though  we  erring  mortals  may  fail  to  accurately 
perceive  them  in  advance." 

Here  is  a  confession  notable  in  itself.  It  would  be 
notable  in  any  man,  and  at  any  time.  But  when  one 
marks  its  date,  its  notability  is  enhanced  impressively. 
For  Lincoln  was  traversing  just  there  some  of  the  darkest 
hours  of  his  overshadowed  life.  It  was  the  period  follow 
ing  his  second  nomination  for  the  presidency  in  May  of 
1864,  and  before  the  crisis  of  election  in  November  of  the 
same  year.  Central  in  that  season  of  wearisome  and 
ominous  uncertainty  fell  the  failure  of  the  battle  in  the 
Wilderness  under  Grant;  the  miscarriage  of  his  plans  for 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  187 

Richmond;  and  the  awful  carnage  by  Petersburg.  Here 
fell  also  the  date  of  Early 's  raid,  with  its  terrible  disclosure 
of  the  helplessness  in  Washington.  Thereupon  ensued,  in 
unexampled  earnestness,  a  recrudescence  of  the  great  and 
widespread  weariness  with  the  war;  and  of  an  open  clamor 
for  some  immediate  conference  and  compromise  for  peace. 
Foremost  leaders  and  defenders  of  the  Union  cause  through 
out  the  North  sank  down  despairingly,  convinced  that  at 
the  coming  national  vote  Lincoln  was  certain  to  meet 
defeat.  At  the  same  time  the  army  sorely  needed  new 
recruits;  but  another  draft  seemed  desperate.  Then 
Lincoln's  closest  counselors  approached  his  ears  with  heavy 
words  of  hopelessness  about  the  outlook  in  the  Northern 
States  confessedly  most  pivotal. 

In  the  midst  of  those  experiences,  on  August  23,  1864, 
Lincoln  penned  and  folded  away  with  singular  care  from 
all  other  eyes,  these  following  words: — 

"This  morning,  as  for  some  days  past,  it  seems  exceed 
ingly  probable  that  this  administration  will  not  be  re- 
elected.  Then  it  will  be  my  duty  to  so  co-operate  with 
the  president-elect  as  to  save  the  Union  Between  the 
election  and  the  inauguration,  as  he  will  have  secured  his 
election  on  such  ground  that  he  cannot  possibly  save  it 
afterward. " 

Those  words  wrere  written  eleven  days  before  he  penned 
the  sentiments  cited  above  from  the  letter  to  the  Quaker 
ess.  Between  those  two  dates  the  Democratic  Conven 
tion  of  Chicago  had  convened  and  nominated  General 
McClellan. 

Amid  such  scenes,  in  the  presence  of  such  events,  and 
among  such  prognostications,  Lincoln  chiseled  out  those 
phrases  about  the  perfect,  hidden,  but  all-prevailing 
purposes  of  God.  Here  is  Godly  piety  in  the  sternest 
stress  of  politics.  Here  faith  is  militant,  and  unsubdued. 


188  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

Its  face  is  like  a  burnished  shield.  Its  patience  no  cam 
paign  outwears.  In  its  constancy  suggestions  of  surrender 
can  find  no  place.  It  was  forged  upon  a  well-worn  anvil, 
under  mighty  strokes,  and  at  a  fervent  heat.  Fires  only 
proved  its  purity.  It  was  fighting  battles  quite  as  sore  as 
any  fought  with  steel.  It  was  the  deathless,  truceless 
courage  of  a  moral  hero.  It  was  pure  and  perfect  forti 
tude.  Its  struggle,  its  testing,  and  its  victory  had  not 
been  wrought  on  earthly  battle-fields.  Its  strife  had  been 
with  God.  More  than  with  the  South,  Lincoln's  con 
troversy  had  been  with  the  Most  High.  He  wrestled 
with  the  heavenly  angel  through  the  night,  like  the  ancient 
patriarch.  Like  the  ancient  saint,  he  bore  the  marks  of 
grievous  conflict.  And  like  him  of  old,  he  gained  his  boon. 
He  achieved  to  see  that  God  and  perfect  righteousness 
were  in  eternal  covenant. 

Such  wras  Lincoln's  piety.  His  view  of  God  gave  God 
an  absolute  pre-eminence.  In  Lincoln's  day,  as  in  the 
day  when  Satan  tempted  Christ,  vast  areas  of  human  life 
seemed  to  give  all  faith  in  God's  control  the  lie;  and  men 
in  multitudes  abjured  such  futile  confidence.  But  Lincoln 
kept  his  faith  in  God,  and  truth,  and  love,  and  immortality. 
And  in  that  faith  he  judged  his  trust,  and  hope,  and  prayer 
to  be  preserved  on  high  inviolate.  There  above,  he  firmly 
held,  were  lodged  eternally  the  perfect  pattern  and  assur 
ance  of  full  rectitude  and  charity.  And  in  that  under 
standing  he  held  on  earth  unyieldingly  to  the  perfect  image 
of  that  heavenly  norm,  in  a  pure  and  acquiescent  loyalty 
and  love.  Thus  discerningly,  submissively,  triumphantly 
did  Lincoln's  heart  aspire  to  unify  an  honest  earthly  walk 
with  a  living  faith  in  God. 

One  word  remains.  As  Lincoln  makes  confession  of  his 
faith  in  this  inaugural,  extolling  God  supremely,  and 
therein  announcing  to  his  fellowmen  the  groundwork  of 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  189 

his  morality,  it  comes  to  view  that  the  qualities  held  fast 
in  Lincoln's  heart,  and  the  attributes  of  God  have  mar 
velous  affinity.  The  equity  he  adores  in  God  he  cherishes 
within  himself,  and  recommends  to  all.  God's  estimate 
of  the  incomparable  value  of  a  human  soul,  when  set  be 
side  the  variable  treasures  men  exchange,  Lincoln's  judg 
ment  reverently  approves,  and  as  reverently  adopts, 
establishing  thereby  a  standard  quality  in  his  conscious 
life.  God's  tender  pity  for  the  poor,  hidden  deep  in  his 
divine  rebuke  of  slavery,  and  hidden  deeper  still  within 
his  mercy  for  all  who  help  to  bear  its  awful  sacrifice,  melts 
and  molds  the  heart  of  Lincoln  to  the  same  compassion. 
And  to  the  very  outlines  of  God's  majesty,  as  his  sovereign 
purposes  are  all  unrolled  and  all  fulfilled  throughout  the 
earth,  Lincoln's  soul  conforms  ideally,  in  its  humble  vision 
and  expression  of  devout,  discerning  praise. 

Here  is  something  passing  wonderful.  Between  a  fragile, 
mortal  man  and  the  eternal  God,  when  each  is  limned  in 
terms  of  ethics,  appears  a  deep  and  high  agreement.  There 
is  enthroned  in  each  a  common  righteousness.  In  each, 
the  laws  of  mercy  are  the  same.  In  each  are  constituted 
principles  inwrought  with  immortality.  And  within  the 
eternal  interplay  of  reverence  and  majesty  between  man 
kind  and  God,  there  is  a  fellowship  in  dignity  that  proves 
the  holy  Maker  and  his  moral  creature  to  be  immediately 
akin.  And  so  the  mind  and  will  of  Lincoln,  in  this  their 
moral  plenitude,  may  interpret  and  recommend,  may  ap 
prehend  and  execute  the  eternal  purposes  of  God.  This 
high  commission  Lincoln  humbly,  firmly  undertook.  And 
in  his  commanding  life  there  is  a  mighty  hint,  not  easy 
to  silence  or  erase,  that  Godliness  and  ethics,  which  have 
been  set  so  often  far  apart,  were  eternally  designed  for 
unison. 


190  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

His  LOGIC — THE  PROBLEM  OF  PERSUASION 

IN  the  study  of  Lincoln's  ethics  it  is  not  enough  to 
describe  it  as  an  ideal  scheme  of  thought,  however  not 
able  its  range  and  poise  and  insight  may  be  seen  to  be. 
As  Lincoln's  character  stands  forth  in  national  eminence 
among  our  national  heroes,  he  figures  as  a  man  of  deeds, 
a  man  of  powerful  influence  over  the  actions  of  other  men, 
a  man  of  masterly  exploits.  However  truly  it  may  be 
affirmed  that  multitudes  of  adjutants  reinforced  his  un 
dertakings  at  every  turn  and  on  every  side,  it  still  holds 
also  true,  and  that  a  truth  almost  without  a  parallel,  that 
his  sheer  personal  force  was  the  single,  undeniable,  over 
mastering  energy  that  shaped  this  Nation's  evolution 
through  an  outstanding  epoch  in  its  career.  It  was  pri 
marily  out  of  those  prolific  and  exhaustless  energies,  stored 
and  mobilized  within  himself,  that  he  rose,  as  though  by 
nature,  to  be  national  chief  executive.  It  was  straight 
along  the  line  of  his  far-seeing  vision  and  advice  that 
Congress  and  the  Nation  were  guided  to  accept  and  under 
take  that  terrible  enterprise  of  war.  In  that  great  struggle 
he  came  to  be  in  firm  reality,  far  more  than  any  other 
man,  the  competent,  effective  commander-in-chief.  He 
was  chief  councilor  in  a  cabinet  whose  supreme  function 
dealt  singly  with  matters  wholly  executive.  It  was  by  the 
almost  marvelous  unison  of  wisdom  and  decision  resident 
in  him  that  Congress  and  the  Nation  were  day  by  day 
induced  to  hold  with  an  almost  preternatural  inflexibility 
to  the  single,  sovereign  issue  of  the  strife.  When,  after 
four  years  of  unexampled  bitterness,  multitudes  were 
wearying  of  all  patience  in  further  hostilities,  it  was  his 
personal  momentum  and  weight,  more  than  any  other 
influence,  that  held  the  prevailing  majority  of  the  national 
electorate  to  predetermine  by  their  free  ballots  that,  at 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  191 

whatever  cost  of  further  war,  the  principles  of  liberty, 
equality,  and  national  integrity  should  be  placed  above 
all  possible  challenge  or  assault  forever. 

And  in  the  period  before  the  war  and  before  his  eleva 
tion  to  the  presidency  this  same  executive  efficiency,  this 
singular  capacity  to  mold  the  views  and  stir  the  motives 
of  other  men,  was  likewise  in  continual  demonstration. 
Discerning  how  supreme  a  factor  in  our  American  affairs 
was  the  power  of  public  sentiment,  and  observing  how 
that  power  was  being  utilized  to  undermine  the  national 
tranquillity,  he  challenged  and  overthrew  single  handed 
the  leading  master  of  the  day  in  the  field  of  political 
management  and  debate.  Trusting  in  the  same  con 
fidence,  and  pursuing  the  same  device,  he  appealed  to  the 
civic  consciences  of  men  in  the  open  field  of  free  debate, 
by  the  single  instrument  of  reasoned  speech,  until,  by  his 
persuading  arguments,  he  consolidated  into  effective  har 
mony  and  led  to  national  victory  a  party  of  independent 
voters,  with  watchword,  platform,  and  experience  all  un 
tried.  In  all  the  process  by  which  that  new-formed  party 
gained  access  to  national  pre-eminence  it  was  Lincoln's 
governing  influence  that  went  ahead  and  gave  the  move 
ment  steadiness.  And  through  it  all  he  vitally  inspired  a 
Nation,  now  undivided  and  indivisible,  with  a  prevailing, 
corporate  desire,  that  all  succeeding  days  and  all  beholding 
Nations  are  now  deeming,  for  any  stable  civic  life,  the 
true  enduring  ideal. 

And  all  of  this  was  compassed  and  set  afoot  within 
scarcely  more  than  one  decade.  In  October  of  1854  at 
Peoria,  he  consciously  took  up  his  strenuous  enterprise. 
In  April  of  1865,  he  laid  it  down  and  ceased  to  strive. 
Single  handed  he  undertook  the  task.  Through  all  its 
progress  the  weight  of  that  one  hand  was  undeniably  pre 
ponderant.  And  when  that  hand  relaxed,  the  task  that 


192  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

its  release  left  trembling  was  one  that  stirred  a  mighty 
Nation's  full  solicitude. 

Here  is  something  marvelous.  These  affirmations,  as 
thus  far  made,  seem  certainly  overdrawn,  and  totally 
incredible.  An  agency  and  an  efficiency  of  national  dimen 
sions,  introducing  and  completing  an  epoch  in  our  national 
history;  but  an  agent  and  an  outfit  almost  defying  inven 
tory,  his  personality  seeming  in  every  phase  so  simple  and 
without  prestige,  and  all  his  ways  and  means  seeming  so 
unpromising  and  plain;  the  while  through  all  his  course 
he  was  confronting  a  resistance  and  a  hostility  whose 
impulse  was  rooted  in  centuries  of  firm  and  proud  dominion, 
and  whose  onset  made  a  Nation  tremble.  How  can  such 
stupendous  affirmations  be  clothed  with  credibility? 
Was  it  indeed  the  hand  of  Lincoln  that  turned  the  Nation 
from  its  mistaken  path?  Was  it  Lincoln's  will  that  rein- 
augurated  our  predestined  course?  Was  it  Lincoln's 
overcoming  confidence  that  established  in  the  land  again 
a  good  assurance  that  its  integrity  was  indestructible? 

If  questions  such  as  these  were  addressed  to  Lincoln 
himself  for  his  reply,  we  may  be  sure  his  answer,  like  all 
his  ways,  would  contain  a  beautiful  mingling  of  modesty 
and  confidence.  Heeding  well  the  mortal  crisis,  and 
hearing  the  Nation's  call  for  help,  he  wrould  not  refuse, 
when  bidden  and  appointed,  to  take  his  stand  alone  at 
the  very  apex  of  the  strain,  knowing  well  that  the  burdens 
to  be  borne  would  be  greater  than  tasked  the  strength  of 
even  Washington;  and  affirming  as  he  advanced  warily 
to  his  post,  that  in  his  appointment  many  abler  men  had 
been  passed  by.  But  then  he  would  re-affirm  and  urge 
again  all  the  arguments  of  his  great  addresses  and  messages 
and  debates,  beginning  with  that  initial  trumpet  peal  in 
Peoria  in  1854,  and  not  concluding  until,  after  all  had  been 
rehearsed  and  reavouched,  he  recited  again  with  prophetic 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  193 

earnestness  this  last  inaugural.  And  throughout  all  his 
devout  re-affirmation  of  all  the  spoken  and  written  appeals 
to  which  his  patriotic  mind  gave  studied  form  and  utter 
ance  in  that  intense  decade,  a  discerning  ear  could  distin 
guish  in  every  paragraph  profound  and  penetrating  attesta 
tions,  such  as  these: — This  is  a  mighty  Nation.  Its  future 
is  far  more  vast.  Its  present  perplexities  are  intricate. 
It  has  been  misled.  It  needs  most  sane  direction.  I  am 
stationed  at  her  head.  Difficulties  environ  me.  My 
burdens  outweigh  Washington's.  But  this  land  was  con 
ceived  in  liberty.  It  was  dedicated  to  be  free.  Here  all 
are  peers.  God's  hand  has  been  on  our  history.  Our 
destiny  enfolds  the  highest  human  weal.  God  is  with  us 
still.  Human  hearts  are  with  us.  Here  is  overcoming 
power.  Despite  my  frailty  and  poor  descent,  I  will  never 
leave  my  place.  I  see  how  other  men  prevail  with  multi 
tudes  by  personal  appeal.  This  shall  be  my  confidence. 
Though  I  have  no  name,  though  there  is  perhaps  no 
reason  why  I  should  ever  have  a  name,  I  can  plead.  I 
can  plead  with  men.  It  is  a  Godlike  art.  Grave  as  is 
my  problem,  this  is  its  grand  solution.  I  will  study  to 
persuade.  I  will  take  refuge  in  the  mighty  power  of 
argument.  I  will  confer,  and  conciliate,  and  convince. 
I  will  employ  my  reason  to  the  full.  I  will  address,  and 
assail,  and  enlist  the  reason  of  other  men.  I  will  put  all 
my  trust  in  speech,  in  ordered,  reasoned  speech.  I  will 
arrange  all  my  convictions  and  hopes  and  plans  in  argu 
ments.  I  will  approach  men's  wills  with  momentous 
propositions.  I  will  open  a  path  to  human  hearts  through 
open  ears  by  my  living  voice.  I  will  make  righteousness 
vibrate  vocally.  To  men's  very  faces  will  I  rebuke  their 
wrong.  Argument,  pure  argument  shall  be  my  only 
weapon,  my  only  agency,  my  only  way.  By  naked  argu 
ment,  honest  and  unadorned,  I  will  undertake  to  turn 


194  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

this  Nation  back  to  rectitude.  I  will  rest  all  my  confidence 
in  truth,  truth  unalloyed,  abjuring  every  counterfeit  and 
all  hypocrisy.  It  is  truth's  primal  and  mightiest  function 
to  persuade.  Through  persuasion  alone  can  freemen  be 
induced  by  freemen  to  yield  a  free  obedience.  The  heaven 
ly  art  of  persuading  speech  shall  be  for  me  the  first  and  the 
last  resort.  By  this  most  comely  instrument  shall  my 
most  eager  and  ambitious  wish  gain  access  to  all  this 
peopled  land,  and  win  vindication  through  all  coming 
time. 

Something  such  as  this,  as  one  must  judge  from  Lincoln's 
practice,  was  Lincoln's  science  and  evaluation  of  the  art 
of  logical  appeal.  By  every  token  Lincoln  was  a  master 
of  assemblies.  Upon  a  public  platform  he  was  in  his 
native  element.  There  he  won  his  place  and  name. 
Whatever  any  one  may  say  about  Lincoln's  reputation  or 
Lincoln's  power,  that  power  and  that  reputation  were 
mined  and  minted  in  the  very  act  and  exercise  of  reasoning 
appeal.  As  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  so  he,  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  audiences  of  freeborn  men,  assembled  from 
his  very  neighborhood,  shaped  and  edged  and  tempered 
his  total  influence.  It  was  when  upon  the  hustings,  and 
while  engaged  in  pleading  speech,  that  he  commanded  the 
Nation's  eye  and  gained  the  Nation's  ear.  And  once 
advanced  to  national  pre-eminence,  it  was  still  by  logical 
persuasion  that  the  Nation's  deference  was  retained. 

What  now  was  the  inner  nature  of  Lincoln's  arguments? 
What  was  the  fiber,  what  the  texture  in  the  composition 
of  his  thought  that  made  its  arguments  so  convincing? 
What  was  the  structure,  and  what  the  carrying  power  in 
his  appeals  that  made  their  logic  so  prevailing,  so  com 
pelling,  so  enduring? 

To  find  an  answer  to  this  inquiry  let  men  review  yet 
once  again  this  last  inaugural.  Here  is  a  product  of  Lin- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  195 

coin's  mind  whose  single  motive  is  persuasion,  whose 
momentum  does  not  diminish,  and  which  seems  destined 
to  be  adjudged  by  history  a  master's  masterpiece.  What 
does  this  short  speech  contain  that  gave  it  in  1865,  and 
gives  it  yet,  an  influence  almost  magical? 

There  can  be  but  one  possible  reply.  The  factor  in 
that  address  that  makes  its  influence  so  imperial  is  the 
moral  majesty  of  the  argument  in  its  major  paragraph. 
That  paragraph  enshrines  an  argument.  Though  fash 
ioned  in  the  mode  and  aspect  of  a  reverent  supposition, 
the  steady  pace  and  import  of  its  ordered  thought  is  such 
as  every  ordered  mind  admits  to  be  compelling.  But  in 
substance  and  in  structure  that  argument  is  purely  ethical. 
All  turns  upon  that  cited,  undoubted  fact  of  age-long, 
unrequited  toil.  Upon  that  stern  actuality  hinges  all  the 
arrangement  of  the  thought.  Its  phrases  move  with 
rhythmic  fluency;  but  they  bind  together  inseparably  a 
Nation's  duty,  sin,  and  doom;  not  omitting  to  enfold,  with 
a  marvel  of  moral  insight,  an  almost  hidden  intimation 
of  a  healing  cure. 

Here  are  weighty  thoughts,  thoughts  that  press  and 
urge,  thoughts  that  carry  and  communicate  the  gravity 
of  centuries.  They  contain  an  interpretation.  They 
clarify  and  illuminate.  And  they  all  co-ordinate.  They 
combine  and  operate  together  to  enforce  agreement. 
They  demonstrate  that  tyranny  breeds  a  baleful  progeny 
of  guilt  and  woe;  that  robbery  binds  the  robber  under 
debt  to  the  full  measure  of  his  rapine;  that  such  guilt  can 
never  be  forgotten;  that  such  a  woe  is  pitiless;  that  the 
centuries,  though  slow  and  mute,  are  attentive  and  im 
partial  witnesses;  and  that  God's  even  judgments  are 
over  all,  and  are  altogether  just.  This  is  all  the  content 
and  all  the  purport  of  this  paragraph,  and  of  all  this  speech : 
an  exposition  of  American  slavery  and  of  its  resultant 


196  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

civil  war,  in  moral  terms,  before  the  moral  bar  of  every 
hearer's  conscience,  and  beneath  the  thought  of  God's 
eternal  righteousness;  all  turning  upon  the  self-evident 
verity  that  unpaid  toil  is  wrong.  In  this  prolific  affirma 
tion  is  the  fertile  germ  of  all  that  Lincoln  ever  thought  or 
undertook  in  that  supreme  decade.  Here  are  enfolded 
all  his  axioms  and  postulates  and  propositions.  By  inter 
locking  its  multiform,  infolded,  self-evident  certitudes  he 
framed  all  his  arguments.  Its  overflowing,  resistless 
demonstrations  in  active  human  affairs  formed  all  his 
corollaries.  Toil  unrequited  is  a  moral  wrong.  It  cries 
to  heaven,  and  shall  be  avenged.  In  this  avenging,  if  we 
but  see  our  day,  there  is  an  open  door  to  join  with  heaven, 
and  transmute  its  vengeance  into  recompense  and  recon 
ciliation. 

This  was  Lincoln's  logic.  It  was  purely  ethical.  This 
was  the  master-key  to  his  transcendent  statesmanship. 
Here  was  the  secret  of  his  political  efficiency.  Thus,  and 
in  no  other  way,  he  swayed  the  Nation.  Himself  a  God 
like  man,  and  discerning  in  every  other  man  the  same 
Godlikeness;  trusting  his  own  soul's  honesty,  and  ap 
pealing  to  honest  manhood  in  all  other  men;  he  took  his 
stand  beside  all  the  oppressed,  and  against  all  extortion; 
and  voiced  and  urged  and  trusted  the  sovereign  moral 
plea  for  perfect  charity,  and  perfect  equity  for  all. 

But  Lincoln's  logic  was  interlaced  with  history.  All 
through  his  debates  and  addresses  are  woven  the  facts 
and  sequences  of  our  national  career.  And  to  these  con 
nected  events  he  clung  in  all  his  arguments,  as  a  man 
clings  to  the  honor  of  his  home.  There  was  in  those 
events  an  argument.  To  tamper  with  that  history,  dis 
crediting  its  sure  occurrences,  or  distorting  their  right 
connection,  was  in  his  conception  a  downright  immorality. 

But  mere  historical  exactitude  was  not  the  motive  of 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  197 

Lincoln's  appeal  to  past  events.  The  momentum  of  our 
past  was  for  Lincoln's  use  entirely  moral.  Here  upon 
this  continent,  as  he  conceived  our  great  experiment,  was 
being  tried,  in  the  presence  and  on  behalf  of  all  mankind, 
a  government  in  which  the  governed  were  the  governors. 
Here  men  are  inquiring  and  being  taught  what  true  man 
hood  can  create,  uphold,  and  consummate  upon  a  con 
tinental  scale,  in  mutual  equality.  Here  men  are  schooled 
for  independence.  Here  men  may  dare  to  fashion  their 
own  law.  Here  men  are  nurtured  towards  full  fraternity. 
Here  men  are  forced  to  heed  the  civic  necessity  of  being 
fair.  Here  a  boundless  impending  future  has  to  be  kept 
steadily  in  view.  Here  the  God  of  Nations  is  teaching  a 
Nation  that  he  should  be  revered.  Here,  in  brief  and  in 
sum,  men  are  being  disciplined  to  know  and  cherish  the 
rudiments  of  civic  character. 

Thus  Lincoln  interpreted  the  meaning  of  our  national 
history.  In  his  rating,  its  total  purport  was  ethical. 
Any  logical  exposition  of  our  national  career,  if  its  state 
ments  are  historically  exact,  will  carry  moral  consequences. 
If  the  logical  sequence  of  any  statement  of  our  historical 
course  is  morally  perverse,  then  that  statement  of  our 
history  is  historically  untrue.  Thus  Lincoln's  jealous  zest 
for  truthful  history,  for  truthful  argument,  and  for  true 
morality  became  coincident. 

But  Lincoln's  logic  was  his  own.  His  zeal  for  history 
was  a  freeman's  zest.  His  arguments  were  not  the  cold 
reflection  of  a  borrowed  light.  They  were  the  fervid 
affirmations  of  his  own  convictions,  compacted  into  reason 
ed  unison,  out  of  the  indivisible  constituents  of  his  very 
manhood's  honor.  When  in  his  appeal  his  soul  most 
glowed,  when  the  ordered  sequence  and  pressure  of  his 
thought  waxed  irresistible,  he  was  simply  opening  to  his 
auditors  the  balanced  burden  of  his  honest  heart.  Then 


198  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

genuine  manhood  became  articulate.  Then  pure  honor 
found  a  voice.  Then  eloquence  became  naught  but  plain 
sincerity.  Then  arguments  became  transparent,  and 
affirmations  convinced  like  axioms.  Then  demonstrations 
moved.  Assertions  did  persuade.  Then  the  very  being 
of  the  orator  took  possession  of  the  auditor  in  an  intelligent 
fraternity.  True,  indeed,  a  solid  South,  and  multitudes 
besides,  derided  his  postulates,  contemned  his  arguments, 
and  scorned  derisively  his  tenderest  appeals.  But  better 
than  they  themselves  he  understood  their  hearts;  and 
holding  fast  forever  his  deeper  faith  and  confidence,  he 
maintained  his  reasoning  and  his  plea,  knowing  surely 
that  in  some  future  day  their  chastened  hearts  would 
vindicate  his  words. 

But  in  all  of  this  exposition  of  Lincoln's  logical  force 
and  skill  there  has  been  no  mention  of  a  syllogism.  Did 
Lincoln  then  neglect  that  famous  formula  of  argumenta 
tive  address?  To  this  natural  inquiry  it  must  be  replied 
that  Lincoln  understood  right  well  the  fine  utility  of  this 
strict  norm  of  formal  thought.  Indeed,  he  had  taken 
special  pains  to  perfect  his  skill  in  just  that  form  of 
argument.  To  the  logical  click  in  a  well-formed  syllogism 
his  inner  ear  was  well  attuned.  Repeatedly  he  summoned 
in  its  aid.  An  excellent  illustration  may  be  seen  in  his 
rejoinder  to  Douglas  at  Galesburg  in  September  of  1858. 
But  Lincoln's  confidence  was  not  in  syllogistic  forms,  how 
ever  trim.  His  trust  wras  in  his  moral  axioms.  Unaided, 
naked  truth;  truth  whose  total  urgency  is  self-contained, 
whose  perfect  verity  is  self-displayed,  and  whose  proudest 
triumphs  are  self -achieved;  pure  truth,  shaped  forth  in 
speech  of  absolute  simplicity;  truth  that  works  directly 
in  the  human  mind,  like  sunshine  in  the  eye,  was  Lincoln's 
handiest  and  most  common  instrument  in  an  argument. 
Thus  he  sought  to  so  use  reason  as  to  awaken  conscience 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  199 

and  arouse  the  will.  And  thus  his  arguments  prevailed. 
This  was  Lincoln's  logic.  It  was  the  orderly  exposition 
of  his  honest  manhood,  pleading  with  the  honest  intelli 
gence  of  every  other  man  for  his  free  assent.  Himself  a 
freeman  whom  God  made  free,  and  greeting  in  every 
other  man  an  equal  dignity;  with  loyalty  to  himself  and 
with  charity  for  all;  with  Godly  deference  and  unfailing 
hope;  he  urged  and  argued  from  his  own  true  manhood, 
and  from  no  other  grounds,  with  a  logic  that  no  true 
freeman  can  ever  refute:  that  in  this  heaven  favored 
land,  and  for  the  welfare  of  all  the  world,  these  ethical 
foundations  of  all  true  civic  welfare  be  kept  unmoved 
forever.  In  such  a  moral  character,  and  in  such  a  moral 
argument  is  this  expanding  Nation's  only  pride  and  sure 
defense.  At  any  modern  Round  Table  of  civic  knights 
Lincoln  is  true  King  Arthur,  and  his  persuading  speech 
the  true  Excalibur. 

His  PERSONALITY — THE  PROBLEM  OF  PSYCHOLOGY 

WHEN  Plato  took  his  pen  to  write  his  dialogues;  when 
Michael  Angelo  took  his  chisel  to  fashion  his  Moses;  when 
Raphael  took  his  brush  to  paint  his  Madonna;  they  were 
designing  to  make  their  several  ideals  of  personality  pre 
eminently  beautiful  and  distinct.  And  each  artist  in  his 
way  won  a  signal,  a  supreme  success.  Moses,  Socrates, 
the  Madonna,  are  shining  revelations  of  human  personality. 
Success  herein  is  the  height  of  highest  art. 

But  what  is  personality?  It  seems  an  eternal  secret, 
despite  all  human  search  and  art.  Yet  its  secret  is  every 
where  felt  instinctively  to  be  of  all  quests  the  most  supreme. 
By  every  avenue  men  are  trying  to  reach  and  reveal  its 
hiding  place.  Our  goal  is  nothing  less  than  the  human 
soul.  And  upon  this  inquest  the  eyes  and  instruments  of 


200  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

our  inspection  are  being  sharpened  with  a  determination 
and  zeal  hitherto  unparalleled. 

Suppose  this  quest  be  turned  to  Lincoln.  Surely  here 
is  a  human  person.  He  stands  enough  apart  in  his  pre 
eminence  to  be  pre-eminently  distinguishable  and  dis 
tinct;  while  yet  his  face  beams  near  enough  to  be  as  fami 
liar  and  accessible  as  our  most  accessible  and  familiar 
friend.  For  surely,  despite  all  his  proneness  towards  a 
musing  solitude,  Lincoln,  of  all  Americans,  displays 
through  all  his  published  statements,  and  in  all  his  public 
life,  an  instructive  and  unstudied  openness  and  unreserve. 
Just  here  his  marvelous  power  and  influence  lie.  He 
practiced  no  concealment.  He  held  communion  with  all 
his  fellowmen.  Herein  consists  his  honesty. 

Now  may  not  an  honest  scholarship,  honestly  conceiving 
that  of  all  investigations  our  pursuit  for  the  ways  and 
dwelling  place  of  personality  is  easily  supreme,  as  honestly 
believe  that  in  the  open,  waiting  heart  of  Lincoln  that 
supreme  inquiry  may  find  its  supreme  reward?  Surely 
here  is  promise  of  a  labor  that  will  pay.  In  Lincoln's 
personality  is  a  vein,  a  mine  whose  worth  and  sure  utility 
no  mineral  wealth  can  parallel. 

What  in  very  truth,  what  in  solid  fact,  what  in  absolute 
reality  is  Lincoln's  personality?  For  undeniably  in  facing 
and  regarding  him,  we  confront  and  apprehend  a  human 
life,  compact  and  self-controlled,  the  native  home  and 
throne  of  all  the  conscious  and  self -directed  energies  that 
are  ever  resident  within  and  representative  of  any  man. 
If  human  personality  ever  took  evident  and  conscious 
shape  and  form,  then  Lincoln  is  an  open  and  easily  ap 
proachable  illustration  of  its  embodiment.  Upon  no 
object  may  a  student  of  psychology  more  easily  or  more 
wisely  fix  his  eye  than  upon  the  soul  of  Lincoln,  when  it 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 


thrills  in  resolute,  intense  endeavor,  as  in  this  last  inaug 
ural. 

For  one  thing,  that  Lincoln  should  be  the  specimen  of 
psychology  commanding  any  student's  choice  is  suggested 
by  Lincoln's  notability.  Here  is  an  exhibit  in  no  way 
ordinary.  He  has  secured  the  attention  of  us  all.  And 
the  attention  of  us  all  is  athrill  with  mighty  interest. 
However  it  has  come  about,  in  some  way,  as  a  human 
personality,  he  illustrates  a  type,  he  presents  a  sample 
so  powerful  and  positive  as  to  stand  before  all  eyes  almost 
alone,  while  also  so  attractive  as  to  be  by  everyone  be 
loved.  This  fact  may  fairly  beget  assurance  from  the 
start  that  in  any  heedful  search  for  the  very  substance  of 
human  personality,  an  interior  and  intimate  fellowship 
with  Lincoln  may  show  us  closely  and  clearly  where  it 
dwells,  and  what  it  is.  For  from  the  start  it  stands  plain 
that  Lincoln's  hold  upon  our  hearts  is  in  its  controlling 
co-efficients  purely  personal.  That  hold  clings  fast  and 
spreads  afar,  indifferent  to  space,  or  time,  or  even  death. 
His  influence  over  us,  so  gladly  welcomed  and  so  clearly 
felt,  is  no  wise  physical  or  temporal.  It  cannot  be  handled 
or  weighed.  It  is  personal.  Herein  is  high  encourage 
ment.  And  that  in  this  sense  of  our  response  to  his  en 
during  sway  should  be  enfolded  on  our  part,  a  kindred, 
pure,  enduring  delight  attests  convincingly  that  within 
Lincoln's  personality  and  our  own  there  is  something 
mutual.  Within  the  thing  we  search  and  us  who  seek 
there  is  profound  affinity.  In  this  our  encouragement 
may  heighten,  and  that  with  solid  soberness,  unto  hope. 

And  then  the  scene  of  this  his  last  inaugural  is  all  aglow 
with  promise.  For  here  if  anywhere  Lincoln's  personality 
may  be  seen  engaged  in  the  ripeness  of  his  finished  disci 
pline,  and  the  fullness  of  his  manhood's  strength.  The 
scene  itself  swells  full  of  meaning;  and  Lincoln's  part  and 


202  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

contribution  fix  and  fill  the  center  of  its  significance. 
Surely  if  anything  within  that  scene  is  plain  to  see  and 
localize,  it  is  Lincoln's  own  identity.  The  living  Lincoln 
is  surely  there,  wholly  unreserved  and  unconcealed. 
There  Lincoln's  personality  is  in  fullest  play,  an  evident 
and  mighty  revelation,  plainly  felt  and  seen. 

But  it  is  only  in  the  action  that  the  actor  comes  to 
view;  only  in  his  words  does  the  thinker  stand  revealed. 
Here  and  thus,  and  nowhere  else  or  otherwise,  is  Lincoln's 
personality  unveiled.  And  yet  herein,  within  the  com 
pass  of  this  speech,  Lincoln  unlades  a  burden  of  such 
grave  concern,  and  unrolls  a  problem  of  such  profound 
complexity  as  could  nowhere  come  to  birth  and  utterance 
but  in  a  mighty  human  heart.  In  the  vastness  of  that 
problem  and  anxiety  can  be  gauged  the  vastness  of  the 
measure  of  that  heart.  Here  open  into  immediate  view 
at  once  an  object  and  a  method  of  research,  fitted  at  once 
to  challenge  and  appall  the  bravest  student's  heart.  But 
once  its  summons  is  distinguished,  it  is  irresistible. 

One  thing  that  meets  the  student,  as  he  seeks  the 
speaker  in  this  speech,  is  its  witness  to  his  titanic  and 
pathetic  toil.  The  words  he  utters  are  the  message  of  a 
laborer  far  forespent,  voiced  with  mingled  weariness  and 
hope,  well  towards  the  sunset  of  a  weary  day.  The  sun 
had  been  fiercely  hot.  The  field  had  been  full  of  thorns. 
And  through  the  arid  hours  he  had  tasted  little  food,  or 
rest,  or  joy.  No  husbandman  ever  chose  his  seed  or 
tilled  his  ground  at  greater  cost  of  patient  care.  None 
ever  had  to  bend  his  frame  to  ruder  weather,  or  battle 
against  more  malicious  and  persistent  pests.  And  all 
the  agony  of  that  toil  had  been  wrought  through  within 
the  anguish  of  his  mind.  In  exactest  and  exacting  thought 
he  had  engrossed  and  consumed  the  full  measure  of  his 
full  strength.  On  all  he  had  to  bear  and  do  he  pondered 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  203 

mightily.  No  mortal  ever  pondered  more  intently  on 
all  that  mortals  ever  have  to  meet.  In  this  inaugural 
scene  the  soul  of  Lincoln  is  straining  at  its  full  strength. 
No  portion  of  his  personal  life  is  idling.  If  a  student's 
hand  is  truly  deft,  he  can  feel,  as  he  fingers  the  throbbing 
life  of  this  address,  the  pulse  beats  of  a  full  heart. 

And  within  the  grasp  and  compass  of  that  heart  are 
revolving  vast  and  strenuous  themes.  The  soul  of  Lin 
coln  is  dealing  with  a  Nation's  destiny.  His  speech  is 
borne  upon  his  single  voice;  but  with  that  single  voice 
he  pleads  for  millions;  and  its  vibrations  carry  through 
a  continent,  as  a  national  oracle.  Expounder  and  de 
fender  of  the  Nation's  vital  honor,  beleaguered  all  about 
with  wrar,  distressed  by  all  oppression,  eager  with  a  sacri 
ficial  passion  that  all  men  everywhere  may  have  liberty 
and  an  equal  share  in  equity,  searching  for  a  just  and 
stable  basis  for  the  world's  tranquillity,  as  he  stands  and 
strives  throughout  that  speech  the  structure  of  his  soul 
grows  luminous.  As  he  studied  Providence  and  scanned 
the  grounds  of  government;  as  he  peered  far  into  the 
deeps  of  freedom,  the  majesty  of  duty,  and  the  sanctions 
of  inviolable  law;  as  he  pondered  the  nature  of  eternal 
right,  and  the  deadly  mischief  of  moral  wrong;  as  he 
watched  the  ways  of  hate  and  pride  and  falsity  and  sensu 
al  delights,  he  was  not  alone  compacting  the  substance 
and  order  of  this  immortal  address;  but  in  the  shapely 
body  of  his  argument  he  has  embodied  and  uncovered 
his  honest,  guileless  heart.  In  the  very  scars  and  seams 
upon  his  sorrow-shadowed  face,  as  he  overcomes  his  task 
and  fills  out  his  duty  in  this  address,  discerning  eyes  can 
see  through  the  furnace  of  how  deep  refinement  his  humble 
and  majestic  soul  has  been  forever  beautified.  Trans 
forming  themes  possessed  his  mind.  By  the  ministry 
and  inner  influence  of  these  themes  he  grew  to  be  trans- 


204  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

formed ;  and  in  the  process  and  issue  of  that  change  the 
outline  arid  texture  of  his  inner  being  becomes  traceable. 

And  of  this  inner  revelation  the  most  notable  mark  is 
its  simplicity.  As  in  this  speech  his  inner  life  is  intro 
duced,  its  texture  is  not  perplexing  and  intricate.  It  is 
perfectly  apprehensible.  The  total  speech  can  be  quickly 
scanned.  Its  sentiments  barely  get  your  full  attention 
before  they  are  at  an  end.  Its  entire  compass  can  be 
comprehended  in  a  single  glance.  Its  whole  sum  can  be 
reviewed  in  a  single  breath.  And  still  its  themes  and 
propositions  are  imperial.  Within  its  fine  simplicity  its 
stateliness  stands  uneclipsed.  Hence  its  marvelous  power 
to  command.  Upon  all  who  look  and  listen,  its  action 
and  appeal  are  like  the  dawning  of  a  day.  Its  major 
propositions  are  assented  to  unconsciously.  It  works 
like  light.  It  is  genial,  winsome,  clear.  And  it  is  irre 
sistible.  It  moves.  It  rules.  It  is  an  argument,  the 
ordered  appeal  of  a  candid,  earnest  mind  to  the  reasoned 
thought  of  honest  men.  Gentle  and  modest  throughout, 
it  contains  and  conveys  compelling  energy.  It  has  the 
sturdiness  of  a  hardy  oak.  And  yet  its  first  appearing 
was  like  a  new  unfolding  of  our  flag.  It  is  a  kingly  word, 
alike  in  lasting  beauty  and  enduring  strength.  In  this 
there  is  surely  some  sure  reflection  of  that  hidden  man 
within,  Lincoln's  real,  undying  self. 

And  this  still  further  may  be  said.  Amid  these  sov 
ereign  interests  and  affirmations  their  agent  is  thus  em 
ployed  of  his  own  free  choice.  He  is  no  automaton.  The 
Lincoln  whom  we  seek,  the  Lincoln  whom  this  address 
is  helping  us  to  see  can  never  be  defined  by  physical 
terms.  Through  the  realm  of  physics  things  move  as 
they  are  moved.  Lincoln  in  this  address  moves  and 
guides  and  governs  himself.  And  he  is  here  self-judged. 
This  inaugural  teems  with  moral  verdicts,  verdicts  that 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  205 

define  eternal  issues  irrevocably.  No  higher  function 
than  this  can  be  imagined  in  any  sphere  of  being,  or  in 
any  form.  These  verdicts  Lincoln  fastens  upon  him 
self.  And  before  the  same  complete  authority  he  sum 
mons  the  whole  Nation  to  bow.  Deep  within  those  ver 
dicts  there  throbs  omnipotently  a  sense  of  moral  duty, 
moral  right,  man's  highest  good  and  goal.  This  ideal  of 
what  should  be  stands  evident  in  this  inaugural  in  Lin 
coln's  own  humble  conformity  with  God,  in  his  own  un 
impeachable  integrity,  in  his  unreserved  benevolence, 
and  in  his  pure  esteem  for  souls.  In  each  one  of  these 
constituents  of  human  duty  Lincoln  sees  unchallengeable 
authority.  For  the  honor  of  each  one  he  deems  himself 
responsible.  Their  mingled  rays  create  the  light  in  which 
he  wrrites  this  speech,  by  which  this  speech  is  read,  and 
under  whose  clear  radiance  he  records  his  oath.  Surely 
here  are  more  than  hints  for  any  one,  who  seeks  to  see 
just  where  this  speech  originates,  and  most  precisely  how 
its  author  may  be  defined. 

Within  this  last  preceding  paragraph  one  feels  again 
the  presence  and  the  movement  of  all  that  all  the  chapters 
of  this  volume  have  contained.  Herein  we  seem  to  face 
a  sort  of  final  synthesis  of  all  our  study.  If  this  be  true, 
or  only  true  approximately,  then  its  face  and  contents 
should  be  scrutinized  until  they  are  cleared  of  every 
shadow  or  alloy.  For  this  research  is  surely  approach 
ing  its  goal,  and  some  of  its  boundaries  may  surely  be  de 
fined. 

One  line  that  shows  indelibly  is  his  intelligence;  an 
intelligence  comprehending  total  centuries,  and  assem 
bling  within  its  scope  extreme  diversities;  an  intelligence 
that  has  a  piercing  eye,  acute  to  distinguish  and  divide; 
an  intelligence  that  has  power  to  estimate,  compare,  and 
summarize;  an  intelligence  intolerant  of  error,  and  eager 


206  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

after  truth;  an  intelligence  that  can  frame  an  argument 
designed  to  clarify,  convince,  and  win  all  other  minds; 
an  intelligence  that  assumes  to  deal  with  God,  receiving 
and  reflecting  within  its  own  interior  and  proper  vision 
a  revelation  of  the  divine  intent.  Here  is  an  energy, 
at  once  receptive  and  original,  fitted  marvelously  for 
a  reflection  that  can  embrace  and  authorize  eternal  truth. 

This  intelligence  is  within  control.  It  is  not  a  vagrant 
or  unguided  force.  It  is  under  conduct,  all  its  action  to 
observe,  inspect,  and  estimate  being  ordered  reasonably. 
And  all  this  influence  operating  to  understand  and  coun 
sel,  all  this  wisdom,  while  gathering  light  and  substance 
from  everywhere,  is  informed  within,  and  wonderfully 
self-contained.  As  Lincoln  reasons  in  this  inaugural,  as 
he  resolves  and  purifies  his  argument,  its  power  to  con 
vince  is  most  intimate  and  deep  within  himself.  As  he 
guides  and  shapes  his  thoughts  for  the  thought  of  other 
men,  the  convictions  within  the  speaker,  and  their  power 
to  persuade,  so  inwrought  in  the  speech,  become  identical. 
In  his  own  consent  choice  and  judgment  are  combined. 
Here  is  freedom  indeed,  a  freedom  to  discern  as  truly  as 
to  choose,  to  distinguish  as  truly  as  to  decide,  to  estimate 
as  truly  as  to  select,  the  freedom  of  the  intelligence,  an 
intelligence  that  is  truly  free. 

This  freedom  fashions  character.  It  is  a  moral  archi 
tect.  It  is  original,  able  to  create.  The  author  of  this 
speech  is  self-produced.  The  personality  that  comes  to 
view  among  those  words  is  self-determined  and  self-made. 
Its  plan  was  sketched  by  his  own  hand.  His  position 
and  his  posture,  his  sentiments  and  his  sympathies,  his 
bent  and  inclination,  his  moral  postulates  and  axioms, 
his  moral  stamp  and  trend  and  tone,  his  stability  and 
moral  sturdiness  are  all  his  own  invention,  originally, 
essentially,  inseparably  his  own.  Lincoln's  character  is 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  207 

Lincoln's  handicraft.  Its  title  vests  in  him.  It  never 
was,  nor  could  it  ever  become  the  property  of  another 
man.  This  all  men  recognize.  But  this  universal  recog 
nition  is  pregnant  with  significance  to  any  seeker  amid 
the  phenomena  of  Lincoln's  life  for  the  substance  of  his 
personality.  Somewhere  within  those  statements  just 
now  made,  somewhere  within  Lincoln's  conscious  author 
ship  and  invention  of  his  moral  worth  is  precious  intima 
tion  of  the  whereabouts  and  constitution  of  his  personal 
ity. 

This  blend  in  Lincoln  of  freedom  and  intelligence,  of 
liberty  and  sanity  is  notable  for  its  evenness.  Lincoln's 
liberty  is  not  chimerical  or  riotous.  It  is  regulated,  or 
derly,  real.  Within  himself  and  over  his  full  destiny,  an 
unimpeachable  sovereign  though  he  is,  he  is  not  prone 
towards  wilfulness,  but  towards  composure  and  sobriety. 
He  moves  as  one  fast-held  beneath  the  law  that  for  all 
his  movements  he  will  be  accountable.  He  always  wears 
the  mien  of  one  who  carries  high  responsibilities.  Far 
from  being  arbitrary,  he  behaves  as  facing  within  himself 
a  court  of  arbitration,  truly  self -in  vested,  and  just  as 
truly  sovereign.  Of  all  his  words  and  deeds  and  attitudes 
he  is  himself  self -constituted,  reverend  judge.  Whether 
seeking  to  resolve  a  doubt,  or  waiting  to  receive  a  ver 
dict,  his  appeal  is  finally  to  himself.  This  is  his  mood 
and  posture  in  this  inaugural.  He  is  giving  an  opinion. 
This  scene  is  a  literal  crisis  in  a  review  in  which  a  Nation's 
history  and  delinquency  have  met  incisive,  balanced 
examination,  to  the  end  that  his  own  view  of  duty  as 
president  might  come  clear  to  his  own  judicial  eye,  and 
all  gain  the  approbation  of  all  mankind.  In  his  loftiest 
originality,  where  his  conscious  power  and  right  to  elect 
the  path  he  takes  is  most  self-evident,  the  way  he  takes 
is  also  owned  to  be  an  unimpeachable  obligation.  Here 


208  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

is  another  signal  hint  for  the  seeker  after  the  living  and 
abiding  source  of  Lincoln's  words  and  deeds.  Somewhere 
within  this  sense  of  duty,  so  sane  and  free  and  serious, 
lives  the  very  Lincoln  whom  we  seek. 

This  judicial  evenness  within  the  free  and  reasoned 
movements  of  Lincoln's  action  and  argument  is  due  to  a 
balanced  store  of  moral  ballast.  His  stalwart  mind  and 
sturdy  will  and  steadfast  consciousness  that  duty  binds 
his  life  stand  leagued  together  in  a  partnership  employ 
ing  infinite  wealth.  With  these  resources  he  daily  ven 
tures  vast  investments.  This  speech  is  such  a  venture, 
laden  with  most  goodly  merchandize.  Indeed  he  ven 
tures  here,  as  everywhere,  his  all.  His  fear  of  God,  his 
self-respect,  his  neighbor  love,  his  thirst  for  things  that 
last — these  are  the  priceless  treasure  he  examines  with  a 
searching  insight,  estimates  with  judicial  carefulness, 
enjoys  with  soul-filling  admiration,  and  then  responsibly 
invests.  On  these  and  these  alone  he  chooses  and  re 
solves  to  seek  returns.  These  are  the  only  seas  where 
sail  his  ships.  Here  is  all  his  merchandise.  Here  is  the 
only  exchange  where  Lincoln  ever  resorts.  Here  and 
here  alone  can  one  make  computation  of  his  wealth. 
If  he  has  wisdom,  it  is  here.  Here  is  all  his  liberty.  Here 
is  a  full  register  of  his  life's  accounts,  and  of  his  full  ac 
countability.  Here  are  all  his  goodly  pearls.  These 
are  the  jewels  that  delight  his  heart.  And  if  only  students 
have  the  eye  to  see,  within  this  joy  deep  secrets  are  re 
vealed. 

Just  here  this  study  has  to  pause.  For  while  it  seems 
to  be  facing  straight  for  that  in  Lincoln  which  is  inner 
most — his  essential  and  immortal  self,  transcending  all 
the  mere  phenomena  of  life — and  standing  where  nothing 
intervenes  between  our  eager  search  and  his  steadfast 
soul,  the  outlook,  as  it  is  scanned  by  different  eyes,  re- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  209 

fleets  in  different  minds  world-wide  diversity.  Lincoln 
sees  this  difference,  and  deals  with  it  in  this  speech.  He 
knows  his  chosen  estimates  of  God  and  man  and  govern 
ment,  of  prayer  and  equity  and  happiness,  of  right  and 
wrong  and  penalty,  awake  resentful  protest.  Just  here 
his  manhood  shows  its  breed.  Without  resentment,  but 
without  surrender,  he  takes  and  keeps  his  oath,  expecting 
that  God,  humanity,  and  time  will  vindicate  his  insight 
and  his  choice.  This  valiant  expectation  stands  today 
fulfilled,  a  commanding  testimony  that  Lincoln's  per 
sonality,  though  so  simply  childlike  in  its  every  trait,  has 
majestic  permanence  and  comprehension.  Its  inmost 
attributes,  as  purified  in  him,  reflect  and  clarify  to  other 
souls,  however  opposite  and  hostile  they  may  seem,  their 
own  essential  and  enduring  rank.  This  gives  pointed 
intimation  that  in  Lincoln's  conscious  life,  deep  under 
neath  his  daily  words  and  deeds,  there  is  a  conscious  unity, 
the  very  seat  of  freedom  and  law,  a  shrine  of  reverence, 
an  altar  of  love,  a  throne  of  truth,  a  fountain-head  of 
purity — a  unity  that  no  antagonist  can  overcome,  that 
neither  time  nor  death  can  decompose. 

But  an  objection  still  persists.  Some  man  will  say 
that  the  search  for  Lincoln's  personality,  as  thus  far 
carried  on,  has  only  dealt  with  ethics,  whereas  research 
in  personality  is  at  bottom  a  problem  of  pure  psychology; 
and  that  in  pure  psychology  the  position  holds  impregnable 
that  naught  beneath  men's  words  and  deeds  can  ever  be 
discerned;  that  naught  indeed  is  real  for  this  investigation 
but  sensible  phenomena;  that  a  human  soul  is  something 
it  is  impossible  to  place. 

This  matter  plainly  claims  respect.  As  an  objection 
it  is  inveterate;  and  whenever  urged,  it  gains  wide  heed. 
In  treating  with  it  some  things  rise  up  for  hearing.  To 
begin  with,  the  intimation  cited  in  the  former  paragraph 


210  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

will  honor  pondering.  Though  that  paragraph  is  intent 
on  ethics  in  its  every  word,  no  paragraph  in  all  the  volume 
more  strictly  so,  still  its  statements  clear  more  ground 
than  a  single  hasty  glance  is  liable  accurately  to  survey. 
It  is  concerned  with  ethics  truly — again  be  that  conceded. 
But  in  no  concern  of  morals  whatsoever  did  Lincoln 
vacate  intelligence.  Never  was  pure  intelligence  more 
intellectually  engaged  than  when  Lincoln's  mind  was 
scanning  moral  problems.  In  such  engagements  Lincoln's 
total  being  was  occupied.  And  if  amid  the  clustering 
multitudes  of  moral  judgments  and  decisions  that  attend 
his  moral  inquiries  and  activities,  there  is  witness  to  the 
presence  of  a  freeborn  judge  whose  identity  remains 
continuously  and  consciously  single  and  the  same,  that 
fact  sheds  searching  light  upon  the  problem  with  which 
this  paragraph  deals. 

Let  one  listen  again  to  this  address — listen  with  a  due 
intentness  as  it  speaks  of  Union  and  destruction  and 
defense;  of  bondage  and  lash  and  unpaid  toil;  of  offenders, 
offenses  and  woe;  of  malice  and  charity  and  right;  of  God 
and  Bible  and  prayer;  of  widows  and  orphans  and  wounds; 
of  war  and  sorrow  and  peace;  of  Nations  and  centuries 
and  Providence.  Here  are  trilogies  and  tragedies  and 
millenniums,  in  ethics  and  religion  and  philosophy — but 
borne  from  perishing  lips  to  perishing  ears  upon  the 
perishing  vehicle  of  a  passing  breath.  This  human 
breath  is  frail,  these  human  words  are  faint,  this  scene 
bursts  forth  and  vanishes.  But  those  trilogies!  They 
are  more  than  flitting  words,  and  shifting  scenes,  and 
dying  breath.  The  actor  outlasts  the  scene;  the  speaker 
outlives  his  word;  the  mortal  breath  is  not  the  measure  of 
the  man.  He  by  whom  these  massive  trilogies  were 
marshaled  and  deployed  before  a  national  audience,  upon 
a  Nation's  stage,  to  form  a  national  spectacle,  and  ex- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  211 

pound  a  Nation's  history,  docs  not  perish  with  his  breath, 
nor  vanish  with  this  scene.  Before,  within  and  afterwards 
he  lives,  pre-arranging,  fulfilling  and  surviving  this  mighty 
drama  of  his  life,  mightily  resembling  God.  A  speech 
and  scene  like  this  bear  witness  to  an  author  and  actor 
outdating  and  outranking  both  scene  and  speech.  An 
author  looms  within  this  speech,  self -moved,  creative, 
free.  An  actor  moves  within  this  scene,  self-made,  poetic, 
unconstrained.  Speech  and  scene,  voice  and  form  are 
not  the  man.  These  are  but  his  fading  vesture.  Deep 
within  those  solemn  trilogies,  as  within  a  kingly  robe, 
conveying  to  his  vestment  all  its  dignity,  though  all  un 
seen  among  its  shapely  folds,  stands  Lincoln's  living, 
Godlike  self.  It  was  to  this  the  people  paid  their  defer 
ence.  Through  those  clear  syllables  that  came  to  utter 
ance  upon  those  mortal  lips  it  was  Lincoln's  immortal 
soul  that  became  articulate.  In  those  ringing  accents 
Lincoln's  self  became  identified.  If  ever  a  human  per 
sonality  crossed  a  human  stage,  not  as  actor  echoing  the 
words  and  attitudes  of  other  men,  but  as  an  author  and 
creator,  fulfilling  within  himself,  in  God's  fear,  on  other 
men's  behalf,  and  with  an  eye  to  deathless  destinies,  his 
own  responsible  trust,  that  man  was  Lincoln  in  this  second 
inaugural  address.  There  he  asserted  and  declared  him 
self. 

Here  then,  in  the  tone  and  impress  of  this  address  is 
the  sovereign  place  to  find  the  tone  and  impress  of  Lin 
coln's  soul.  If  that  living  soul  ever  gave  a  conscious 
hint  of  its  living  lineaments  and  hidden  dwelling  place, 
here  is  that  hint's  finest  published  utterance.  Here, 
then,  is  the  total  measure  of  our  task.  Upon  this  trans 
parent  speech,  and  not  upon  vacant  air,  is  the  student  of 
psychology  to  direct  his  eye.  Here  is  the  final  challenge. 
Deep  within  the  deeps  of  this  supreme  address,  clear 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 


within  the  rhythms  of  these  resounding  trilogies,  what 
does  one  see  and  hear? 

To  the  question  thus  defined  an  answer  something  such 
as  this  must  be  returned: 

Here  in  this  inaugural  address  is  designation  and  signa 
ture  of  a  man  astute  to  comprehend  a  Nation's  history, 
reverent  towards  responsibility,  a  champion  and  exponent 
of  liberty,  commending  with  radiant  earnestness  that 
all  his  fellow  men  so  walk  with  God,  so  cherish  equity, 
and  so  walk  in  charity  as  to  secure  in  all  the  earth  an 
amity  that  time  can  never  disrupt. 

Something  such  is  the  personality  which  this  address 
attests.  While  this  speech  exists,  this  testimony  will 
endure.  Itfe  word  stands  firm.  And  its  signature  is  plain. 
He  who  wrote  the  speech  has  left  upon  its  manuscript 
his  clear  and  sacred  seal.  He  who  gave  its  body  shape 
was  a  freeman  none  could  bend,  heedful  of  the  arbiter 
none  might  disobey,  humble  towards  God,  loyal  to  him 
self,  a  friend  to  every  man,  an  aspirant  for  life. 

Surely  these  are  intimations  of  personality.  Here  is 
Lincoln,  a  vivid  plenitude  in  living  unison  of  timeless 
quietness  and  harmony,  ordaining  freely  his  own  law  of 
even  heed  for  self  and  brother  man,  for  God  and  spirit 
life.  Here  is  the  full  manhood  of  a  living  soul,  Godlike 
and  earthly-born.  None  of  its  features  are  solidified  in 
flesh,  to  be  again  and  soon  resolved.  All  its  face  is  spirit 
ual;  all  its  action  free,  self  -ordered,  and  self  -judged;  all 
preserving  jealously  its  own  kingly  honor;  all  beaming 
graciously  on  other  men;  all  bearing  homage  up  to  God; 
all  vivid  with  immortality;  abhorring  mightily  all  pride 
and  hate,  all  falsehood  and  decay;  all  sharing  sacrificially 
with  other  men  the  cost  and  shame  entailed  in  righting 
human  wrong.  This  is  Lincoln's  personality.  In  God 
like,  friendly,  undying  self-respect;  in  heavenly,  upright, 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  213 

immortal  kindliness;  in  humane,  divine,  self -honoring 
heed  for  spirit-life — in  each  and  any  one  of  these  four 
identical  affirmations  is  Lincoln's  personality  exhaustively 
engrossed,  each  and  any  one  declaring  that  he  contains 
within  himself  a  free  and  deathless  soul,  akin  alike  to 
God  and  man,  and  bound  therein  by  the  self-wrought 
law  of  love  and  truth. 

These  terms  define  a  life  at  once  of  human  and  of  heav 
enly  range,  at  once  inhabiting  and  transcending  realms 
of  change,  at  once  self-ruled  and  environed  with  responsi 
bility.  Here  is  elemental  personality,  in  inwrought  and 
indivisible  unity,  with  measureless  capacity  for  versatility, 
easily  blending  fulness  of  vigor  with  complete  repose, 
vestured  and  transfused  with  native  symmetry  and  grace. 
In  some  such  living,  breathing  words,  themselves  trans 
figured  and  illumined  by  the  quickening  verities  they  strive 
to  body  forth,  may  the  pure,  immortal  soul  of  Lincoln, 
and  of  every  child  of  man,  be  defined,  unburdened,  and 
declared. 

Something  thus  must  written  'words  describe  the  soul 
that  surged  beneath  this  speech,  and  freely  gave  this 
speech  its  being.  Surely  such  an  undertaking  must  not 
be  despised.  That  aspiring,  creative  spirit,  so  earnest 
and  so  resolute,  far  more  than  any  speech  its  vision  or  its 
passion  may  body  forth,  demands  to  be  portrayed.  Grand 
as  are  these  paragraphs,  their  author  has  a  far  surpassing 
majesty.  Fitted  as  are  these  accents  to  reach  and  stir 
the  auditors  of  a  continent,  the  soul  from  which  these 
accents  rise  has  an  access  to  all  those  auditors  far  more 
intimate. 

If  readers  of  this  essay  spurn  the  effort  which  it  under 
takes,  let  them  not  be  scorners  merely.  From  among  their 
number,  let  some  one  arise,  artist  enough  in  insight  and 
handicraft  to  make  some  truer  delineation  of  that  living 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 


Lincoln,  the  abiding  origin  and  author  of  this  and  his 
every  other  noble  speech  and  deed.  Such  an  artist  is 
sure  to  find,  if  ever  the  conscious  soul  of  Lincoln  shines 
through  his  hand,  that  when  the  inner  face  of  Lincoln  is 
portrayed,  that  portrait  will  carry  speaking  evidence  of 
a  joyful  and  abiding  consciousness  of  liberty  and  law, 
of  self  and  brother  man,  of  things  eternal,  and  of  God; 
that  in  his  countenance,  so  sorrow-shadowed  and  yet  so 
serene,  will  shine  a  close  resemblance  to  every  other  man; 
that  through  his  quiet  eye  will  gleam  that  image  of  God 
in  which  he  and  all  his  fellow  men  have  been  made;  and 
that  deep  within  it  all  will  beam  a  radiant  assurance 
that  by  the  way  of  sacrifice  the  awful  mystery  of  sin  has 
been  resolved. 

Hitherward  must  men  who  seek  the  soul  of  Lincoln 
turn  their  eye.  Humble,  gentle,  and  loyal,  eager  after 
the  life  that  is  its  own  reward,  at  once  dutiful  and  free, 
lavishing  out  his  life  to  take  the  sting  from  sin  —  this  is 
the  soul  of  Lincoln.  In  this  image  every  man  will  see 
himself  reflected,  either  in  affinity,  or  by  rebuke,  herein 
revealing  how  all  men  resemble  God.  Something  such  is 
man.  Something  such  is  our  common  manhood.  Some 
thing  such  is  our  inherent  testimony  as  to  our  origin  and 
source.  And  something  such  is  the  task  of  him  who 
would  frame  a  valid  definition  of  personality.  No  under 
taking  is  more  profound,  none  more  supreme.  And  once 
it  is  accomplished,  forms  of  statement  will  have  been 
found  availing  to  embody  all  man  can  ever  know  of  self 
or  God. 


PART  V.    CONCLUSION 

LINCOLN'S  CHARACTER 

IN  all  the  chapters  that  have  gone  before,  the  essential 
constructive  factors  have  been  very  few.  This  is  evident 
from  their  continual  reiteration — a  reiteration  that  is  too 
conspicuous  to  be  overlooked.  In  this  is  intimation  that 
the  last  inclusive  affirmation  of  this  study  will  be  remark 
able  for  its  brevity  and  also  for  its  open  clarity.  The 
simple  elements  of  such  a  closing  synthesis  may  be  here 
set  down. 

As  encouraging  this  attempt,  it  may  be  first  remarked 
that  Lincoln's  We  attests  and  demonstrates  the  primacy 
of  character.  This  is  the  foundation  of  his  fame;  and 
hereby  his  fame  is  felt  to  be  secure.  To  this  all  men  agree. 
This  world-wide  consent  may  be  said  to  be  unhesitant, 
spontaneous,  unforced,  arising  as  though  by  common 
instinct,  or  by  a  moral  intuition,  all  men  everywhere 
viewing  him  alike,  even  as  all  eyes  everywhere  act  alike 
in  receiving  and  reflecting  light.  Here  is  something  of  a 
significance  nothing  less  than  imperial  for  a  student  of 
ethics.  For  it  seems  to  say  that  by  universal  suffrage 
an  international  tribute  is  rendered  to  a  common  pattern 
of  human  life;  that  there  is  a  world  ideal  in  the  moral 
realm;  that  this  ideal  is  visibly  near;  and  that  this  realized 
ideal  is  so  altogether  friendly,  admirable  and  excellent 
as  to  win  from  every  land  an  overflowing  flood  of  thank 
fulness  and  joy.  So  genuine,  so  genial,  and  so  grand  is 
Lincoln's  moral  life.  In  the  face  of  such  a  life,  and  of 

215 


216  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

such  a  tribute,  a  student  of  ethics  may  be  emboldened 
to  assume  that  his  science  has  indeed  foundations;  that 
those  sure  grounds  are  after  all  not  far  to  seek;  and  that 
when  those  cornerstones  are  once  uncovered,  they  will  be 
within  the  easy  comprehension  of  common  men.  Here, 
then,  in  Lincoln's  open  and  exalted  life  is  at  once  a  chal 
lenge  and  a  test  for  all  who  would  like  to  attempt  a  care 
ful  survey  of  the  moral  realm. 

One  sterling,  standing  coefficient  of  Lincoln's  character 
was  its  thoughtfulness.  Piercing,  pondering  thought  was 
with  him  a  habitude.  His  mind  had  insight,  and  he  used 
its  eye  unsparingly.  This  was  no  mere  mental  cunning, 
though  he  was  surely  passing  shrewd  and  keen.  In 
Lincoln  insight  was  so  inseparably  allied  with  an  active 
sense  of  responsibility  that  it  may  be  best  denned  as  search 
ing  honesty.  Into  the  massive,  solid,  stubborn  problems 
of  his  perplexing  day  he  drilled  and  pierced  by  plodding, 
patient,  penetrating  thought.  Kepler  never  fixed  his 
mind  more  steadily  upon  any  study  of  geometric  curves 
than  Lincoln  his  upon  the  intricate  questions  of  govern 
ment.  And  not  in  vain.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  Lin 
coln's  moral  judgments  and  resolves  were  without  excep 
tion  the  long-sought  winnings  of  exactest  and  most  exact 
ing  mental  toil. 

One  fruit  of  this  sharp  scrutiny  was  a  quite  unusual 
foresight.  In  this  keen  certitude  touching  things  to  come 
he  was  almost  without  a  peer.  But  its  design  and  its 
utility  for  him  were  ethical.  The  coming  issues  towards 
which  he  explored  were  moral.  The  future  he  foresaw 
was  thick  with  evolving  sanctions  involved  in  moral  deeds. 
For  such  events,  whether  near  or  far,  he  had  a  seeing  eye. 
And  with  a  steady  view  to  those  oncoming  certainties  he 
shaped  his  resolutions,  and  plotted  out  his  life.  That 
those  high  purposes  involved  his  soul  in  untold  sorrow  he 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  217 

well  and  unerringly  foresaw.  It  was  not  by  mental 
blunders  that  he  became  enmeshed  in  the  anguish  and 
anxiety  that  made  his  life  so  shadowed  and  solitary.  And 
it  was  not  by  shrewder  wits  that  other  men  escaped  his 
all  but  constant  fellowship  with  reproach  and  grief. 
Lincoln  saw  beforehand  whither  his  studied  view  of  duty 
and  his  clear-eyed  obedience  led.  Where  other  men 
stood  blind  he  achieved  to  see  that  his  selected,  sorrow- 
burdened  path  was  the  only  way  to  the  happiness  that 
could  wear  and  satisfy.  His  insight  was  betrothed  right 
loyally  to  the  faithful  league  of  moral  verities.  Thus 
Lincoln's  character  was  stamped  and  sealed  with  prudence. 
Here  gleams  his  wisdom.  His  thought  was  balanced, 
looking  many  ways  and  comprehending  many  parts. 
Hence  his  sane  judiciousness. 

But  this  well-pondered  carefulness  was  no  mere  mental 
sapience.  The  world  of  Lincoln's  painstaking  thought 
was  a  world  of  character;  a  world  of  liberty;  a  world  of 
binding  obligation;  a  world  of  right  and  wrong;  a  world 
of  God-like  opportunities;  a  world  of  awful  sanctions;  a 
world  where  dignity  and  shame  are  infinite;  a  world  of 
manhood  and  of  brother  men;  a  world  where  human  souls 
outrank  all  other  things,  like  God. 

These  were  the  themes  that  Lincoln's  mind  inspected 
and  adjudged.  It  is  by  virtue  of  his  life-long  search  to 
find  in  such  mighty  interests  as  these  their  rational  con 
sistency,  that  mental  values  of  the  highest  grade  pervade 
and  signalize  his  character.  No  mortal  course  in  all  our 
history  was  ever  reasoned  out  more  carefully  than  the 
course  that  Lincoln  chose  and  held  with  moral  heroism 
to  his  death.  To  overlook  or  underrate  this  thought- 
fulness  in  any  reasoned  estimate  or  exposition  of  Lincoln's 
character  would  be  infinitely  unfair.  As  with  light  and 


218  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

vision,  his  thoughtfulness  is  'the  medium  in  which  his 
character  stands  manifest. 

Quite  as  elemental  in  Lincoln's  character  as  his  thought- 
fulness  is  his  courtly  deference  to  duty.  Lincoln's  con 
science  controlled  and  held  him  in  his  course,  as  gravita 
tion  holds  and  guides  this  globe.  This  all  men  discern; 
and  discerning,  they  admire.  Deep  in  the  center  of  this 
unanimous  admiration  is  a  respect  for  Lincoln  that  amounts 
almost  to  reverence.  Lincoln's  estimate  of  law  was  most 
profound.  When,  after  humble  and  all-engrossing  search, 
he  found  and  traced  those  sovereign  obligations  to  which 
he  bowed  his  life,  his  estimate  and  attitude  were  as  though 
he  stood  face  to  face  with  God.  But  in  that  deference 
was  a  courtliness  that  was  beautifully  Lincoln's  own.  He 
too  admired,  where  he  obeyed.  His  thoughtfulness  was 
a  stately,  sovereign  court  that  sanctioned  and  made 
supreme  every  law  that  he  revered.  This  transcendent, 
all-commanding  sense  of  duty,  springing  from  within,  and 
also  descending  from  above,  seated  centrally  within  his 
character,  is  centrally  and  inseparably  inwrought  within 
his  fame.  While  his  name  abides  this  princely  heed  for 
duty  will  persist  to  challenge  and  to  test  each  studied 
statement  of  his  character. 

Another  factor  of  Lincoln's  character,  likewise  radical, 
impossible  to  omit,  is  his  free  and  self -formed  choice. 
That  Lincoln's  choice  was  truly  free,  self-moved,  and 
truly  unconstrained  comes  clear  impressively  when  one 
for  long  inspects  and  understands  his  thoughtfulness. 
Lincoln's  mental  action  in  its  riper  stages  was  a  pure  de 
liberation.  In  that  careful  pondering  we  can  feel  and  see 
his  ripening  moral  preference  grow  clear  and  free  from 
trammels  of  every  sort,  and  gain  towards  decisions  that 
know  no  other  influence  but  reason  wholly  purified.  So 
inseparable  in  him  were  choice  and  seasoned  wisdom. 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  219 

From  this  it  follows  that  Lincoln's  ripe  decisions  can  be 
understood  only  when  one  comprehends  his  mental  equi 
librium. 

And  here  it  comes  to  view  that  Lincoln's  moral  resolu 
tions  led  him  far  asunder  from  the  multitudes.  It  is  here 
that  Lincoln's  isolation  takes  departure.  This  parting  of 
the  ways  needs  noting  narrowly.  From  his  selection  of 
his  path  for  Me  the  world  at  large  draws  back.  Yet  even 
so  he  still  retains  the  world's  applause.  Here  opens  the 
true  secret  of  his  distinction,  as  of  his  excellence  and  power. 
This  secret  lies  deeply  hidden,  and  yet  openly  revealed 
in  the  comely  balanced  law  his  thoughtful  wisdom  led 
his  noble  will  loyally  to  admire,  adopt,  and  struggle  unto 
death  to  keep. 

What  now  in  true  precision  was  this  comely,  balanced 
programme  of  a  moral  life  that  Lincoln's  wisdom  led  his 
will  to  adopt?  Here  is  the  apex  of  this  study.  That  it 
is  not  beyond  man's  reach,  the  world's  applause  and 
Lincoln's  lowly  plainness  and  full  accessibility  may  well 
encourage  any  man  to  hope.  That  this  inquiry  should 
stand  unanswered,  or  be  answered  heedlessly,  or  with  any 
vagueness,  is  unworthy  of  our  day  or  of  our  land.  But 
in  the  answer  should  be  verbally  embodied  adequate  and 
intelligible  explanation  of  Lincoln's  moral  majesty,  of  his 
unexampled  intimateness  with  every  sort  of  men,  and  of 
an  undivided  world's  applause. 

These  tests  are  heeded  by  the  answer  which  this  study 
venturss  to  suggest,  when  it  says  that  Lincoln's  thought 
ful  ponderings  on  the  ways  of  God,  on  the  souls  and  lives 
of  men,  on  the  microcosm  in  every  man,  and  on  the  prin 
ciples  of  all  society,  revealed  to  him  the  obligation,  in  de 
ference  to  himself,  to  his  neighbor,  and  to  his  God,  and 
with  full  heed  to  immortality,  to  choose  and  follow  to  its 
full  perfection  the  law  of  even  truth  and  love.  To  be  fair, 


220  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

and  kind,  and  pure,  as  a  lowly,  kingly  child  of  God — this 
was  the  wisdom,  the  obligation,  the  aspiration  of  Lincoln's 
life.  This  was  the  moral  sum  and  substance  of  his  thought 
ful,  free,  obedient  life.  Here  in  brief  and  in  full  is  Lincoln's 
character. 

In  such  a  character  is  Godlike  potency,  and  fluency, 
and  dignity.  Within  its  easy  interplay  is  true  simplicity, 
and  unison.  Within  its  harmony  shines  the  eye  of  beauty. 
Amid  all  turbulence  it  holds  serene.  Its  movements  con 
vey  a  majesty  that  awakens  deference.  It  is  free,  like 
God,  to  devise,  adjust,  and  originate,  ever  having  inner 
power  creatively  to  overcome  or  reconcile  outright  antag 
onism.  Its  thoughtfulness  has  a  master's  power  to  divide, 
combine,  and  comprehend.  It  can  gaze  unblenched  and 
unamazed  into  the  awful  face  of  evil.  It  can  plant  and 
wield  a  leverage  that  can  overturn  every  evil  argument. 
In  its  finished  ministry  it  can  present  a  portrait  of  the 
human  soul  true  to  its  very  life.  In  such  a  character, 
though  compassed  in  a  single  life,  and  marked  with  signal 
modesty,  there  dwells  a  fulness  adequate  to  delineate  and 
comprehend  all  the  mighty  magnitudes  within  the  moral 
universe. 

Such  is  the  character  that  Lincoln's  life  leads  all  the 
world  to  admire.  Its  beauty  lies  enshrined  within  the 
blended  light  of  wisdom,  freedom  and  obedience  along 
the  way  where  loyalty,  charity,  humility  and  hope  of 
immortality  shine  ever  brighter  unto  perfect  day.  Here 
is  wisdom.  And  here  is  worth.  And  here  these  two  are 
one. 

LINCOLN'S  PREFERENCE 

IN  the  chapter  just  concluded,  the  field  of  ethics  is 
termed  a  "universe."  In  the  chapter  upon  Theodicy,  it 
was  noted  that  in  Lincoln's  most  thoughtful  ponderings, 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  221 

the  great  world  of  reality  that  passes  under  the  name  of 
physics,  or  the  physical  world,  seemed  to  lie  outside  the 
field  of  his  concern.  Here  is  a  matter  demanding  some 
thing  more  than  a  bare  allusion.  The  ponderable  universe 
of  material  things  has  impressive  majesty.  It  is  too  solid 
and  real  and  present  in  our  Me  to  be  ignored.  Among 
the  stars  and  beneath  the  hills  and  within  the  seas  are 
solid  and  substantial  verities.  We  are  environed  by  their 
influences  on  every  side.  It  is  deep  within  their  strong 
embrace  that  our  predetermined  fate  is  being  continuously 
unrolled.  What  can  be  the  scope  and  what  must  be  the 
value  of  any  view  of  ethics  or  any  plan  of  We  in  which 
this  solid,  ever-present,  all-embracing  material  world  is 
so  indifferently  esteemed? 

It  is  with  just  this  query  in  mind  that  this  research  into 
the  mind  of  Lincoln  was  first  conceived.  And  the  query 
which  has  been  throughout  in  immediate  review,  but  un- 
propounded  openly  as  yet,  now  demands  to  be  defined 
and  scrutinized.  Did  the  mind  of  Lincoln,  engrossed  as 
it  was  upon  interests  supremely  ethical,  and  ignoring,  as 
it  seemed  to  do,  all  those  vast  and  deep  complexities  of 
the  purely  physical  world,  find  for  our  unquiet  human 
thought  the  true  and  perfect  equilibrium?  Or  was  the 
thought  of  Lincoln  unbalanced  and  incomplete,  misguided 
and  inadequate  essentially?  In  brief,  how  must  ethics 
and  physics,  these  two  and  only  two  supreme  realities, 
when  each  is  most  fairly  understood,  be  conceived  to  cor 
relate  and  harmonize?  As  between  these  two  realities, 
each  so  imperial  and  so  irreducible,  which  holds  primacy? 

Here  is  for  any  thoughtful  mind  well  nigh  the  last  inter 
rogation.  To  attain  a  competent  reply  the  essential 
qualities  of  each  and  either  realm  must  be  uncovered  and 
compared.  In  physics  here,  and  in  ethics  there,  what 
attributes  pervade,  abide,  and  are  essential?  And,  these 


222  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

true  qualities  being  seen  in  each,  as  between  the  two, 
which  proves  itself  superior;  in  which  does  the  soul  of  man 
find  rest? 

In  the  universe  of  physics,  in  all  the  world  of  things  men 
see  and  touch  and  weigh  one  pervading  and  abiding  quality 
is  change.  We  speak  indeed  of  the  eternal  hills;  and  be 
fore  their  age-long  steadfastness  that  phrase  seems  accu 
rate.  But  it  is  only  soaring  rhetoric,  surely  sinking  from 
its  flight,  when  sober  science  sets  about  to  cipher  from 
the  distinct  confessions  of  their  very  rocks  the  date  of 
their  birth,  the  story  of  their  growth,  and  the  sure 
predictions  of  their  complete  decay.  In  all  the  stability 
of  the  solid  hills  there  is  nothing  permanent.  So  with 
the  ageless  stars.  So  with  the  ever-flowing  sea.  And 
so  with  the  very  elements  of  which  hills  and  stars  and  sea 
are  mixed.  All  the  story  of  all  their  genesis  and  journey 
ing  and  vanishing  is  a  never-ending  tale  of  change. 
Nothing  physical  abides  the  same.  Beneath  the  daring 
rays  of  present-day  research  all  things  are  being  proved 
impermanent,  all  found  verging  over  the  infinite  abyss. 
Transmutations  are  in  progress  everywhere. 

In  the  soul  of  Lincoln  there  was  craving  for  a  sort  of 
satisfaction  which  nothing  mutable  could  ever  meet. 
Amid  this  pageantry  of  change,  among  these  ceaseless 
transformations,  with  all  their  passing  beauty,  and  all 
their  final  disappointment,  there  was  in  him  a  hungering 
after  something  that  should  hold  eternally.  And  within 
this  very  eagerness  was  genuine  kinship  with  the  change 
less  foothold  in  things  eternal  which  it  aspired  to  find. 
His  very  longing  was  innerly  undying.  His  thirst  for 
immortality  was  in  itself  averse  and  opposite  to  death 
essentially.  Deep  within  his  desire,  deep  within  himself 
were  living  verities,  within  themselves  immutable.  His 
admiration  before  God's  majesty,  his  free  covenant  with 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  223 

perfect  loyalty,  his  friendly  kindliness  towards  all  others 
like  himself,  and  his  God-like  sacrificial  grief  for  all  wrong 
doing,  held  within  their  pure  vitality  visions  and  passions 
and  aspirations  that  no  mortal  darts  could  touch.  And 
when  with  clear  discernment  he  freely  chose  to  fill  his  soul 
with  hopes  and  deeds  that  eternally  evade  decay,  he 
selected,  as  between  things  that  change  and  things  that 
abide,  that  reality  to  whose  eternal  primacy  every  passing 
day  yields  perfect  demonstration.  Nowhere  in  physics, 
in  ethics  alone  could  be  found  the  perfect  solace  of  con 
scious  perpetuity. 

Another  quality  of  all  things  physical,  a  quality  like 
wise  all-pervading  and  persistent,  is  their  want  of  spon 
taneity.  Within  the  nature  of  this  mighty  physical  bulk, 
that  is  forever  altering  its  garb  and  form,  and  within  all 
its  flowing  change  there  is  no  liberty.  Through  all  the 
ever- vary  ing  orbit  of  the  moon;  in  all  the  marvelous  wed 
lock  of  the  elements  within  the  rocks  and  soils  and  plants ; 
in  all  convulsions  and  explosions  of  air  and  sea  and  fluent 
gas;  in  lightning,  fire,  and  plague;  in  all  the  age-long  mo 
notony  of  instinct,  habit,  and  proclivity,  there  is  no  con 
scious  choice,  no  character-worth,  no  ennobling  and  terri 
fying  responsibility.  Through  all  this  change  of  mortal 
things  all  things  are  fixed.  Naught  is  nobly  free. 

In  the  soul  of  Lincoln  there  was  a  passion  to  be  free. 
In  this  desire  there  was  a  clear  intelligence,  and  a  purpose 
like  to  God's.  He  coveted  a  dignity  that  was  self -achieved. 
He  deemed  that  worth,  and  that  alone,  supreme  that  was 
his  own  creation.  Only  in  deeds  that  he  himself  deter 
mined  could  he  discern  true  excellence.  Herein  he  stood 
apart  from  brutes,  ranked  above  the  hills,  and  pierced 
beyond  the  stars.  And  when,  with  such  an  insight,  and 
such  a  soaring  wish,  and  in  such  high  dignity,  he  freely 
chose  to  hold  supreme  the  life  and  thought  and  joy  that 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 


are  truly  free,  rating  all  things  fixed  and  physical  as  for 
ever  far  beneath,  he  allotted  certain  primacy  to  that  which 
he  discreetly  judged  undoubtedly  pre-eminent.  In  closest 
consonance  with  what  has  last  been  said,  comes  now  to  be 
affirmed,  a  central  quality  of  all  things  purely  physical  — 
persistent  and  pervading  everywhere  —  their  absolute 
inertia  morally.  They  move  as  they  are  moved,  and 
never  otherwise.  The  law  by  which  their  being  is  con 
trolled  is  not  their  own.  At  the  last  and  evermore  physics, 
though  the  measureless  arena  of  unmeasured  active  en 
ergy,  is  powerless.  It  cannot  even  obey.  But  most 
demonstrably  it  can  never  command,  not  even  itself.  It 
is  vastly,  deeply,  and  forever  only  passive;  although  with 
in  its  ponderous  frame  are  playing  with  baffling  constancy 
forces  that  weary  all  too  easily  our  most  stalwart  thought. 

In  such  a  realm  as  this,  forever  uiiawakened  and  ever 
more  unjudged,  Lincoln's  awakened  and  judicial  soul 
could  never  find  contentment.  Within  that  manly  heart 
was  enthroned  a  conscience,  alert  alike  to  receive  and  to 
originate,  as  also  to  approve  and  fulfill  all  noble  and  en 
nobling  obligations.  He  knew  the  meaning  and  the  sense 
of  duty,  the  weight  of  duty  claimed,  and  the  worth  of  duty 
done.  In  his  true  heart  was  a  living  spring  of  moral  law. 
And  in  cherishing  with  exalted  satisfaction  this  imperial 
quality  of  all  true  moral  life,  therein  deciding  that  physics 
held  nothing  worthy  of  any  comparison,  he  gave  kingly 
utterance  to  a  judgment  and  decision  and  desire  that  could 
estimate  infallibly  the  ultimate  competitors  within  his 
conscious  life  for  primacy.  For  ever  in  ethics,  as  never  in 
physics,  right  judgment  finds  its  source. 

Yet  another  quality  of  physics,  likewise  all-pervasive 
and  permanent,  is  the  mocking,  paralyzing  mystery  in 
which  all  its  certainties  are  veiled.  The  mighty  acquisi 
tions  to  our  certain  knowledge  in  the  realm  of  nature  are 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  225 

superbly  manifold  and  as  superbly  sure.  The  swelling 
catalogue  of  things  well  certified  in  the  material  world 
seems  to  advance  the  modern  scientific  mind  almost  to 
genuine  apotheosis.  But  of  all  these  stately  certitudes 
there  is  not  one  but  walks  in  darkness  no  human  eye  nor 
thought  can  penetrate.  Before  heroic  and  unexampled 
diligence  and  daring  the  scientific  frontiers  are  receding 
everywhere;  but  only  to  make  still  more  amazing  and 
unbearable  their  inscrutability.  On  every  horizon  of  the 
physical  realm  yawn  infinitudes,  whether  of  space  or  time, 
of  geometry  or  arithmetic,  of  electron  or  of  cell,  so  defiant, 
so  bewildering,  and  so  overwhelming  in  their  complete 
defeat  and  mockery  of  our  bravest  and  best  intelligence 
that  our  proudest  powers  are  palsied  utterly.  Which 
ever  ways  we  turn,  whatever  gains  we  win,  we  face  at 
last,  in  the  very  eye  of  our  research,  and  in  the  very  heart 
of  our  desire,  a  changeless  silence  that  mocks  all  hope, 
and  leaves  us  standing  in  an  utter  void.  In  the  realm  of 
simple  physics  the  human  intellect,  despite  the  fact  that 
in  the  physical  realm  the  mind  of  man  has  triumphed 
gloriously,  is  faced  forever  with  the  taunting  consciousness 
that  its  primal  task  is  still  undone. 

In  an  undertaking  such  as  this,  and  in  such  a  hapless 
outcome,  the  mind  and  life  of  Lincoln  could  never  be  en 
grossed.  He  was  ever  facing  mystery  indeed  in  the  per 
plexities  that  throng  the  moral  realm.  In  fact,  in  the 
darkness  and  confusion  that  enshroud  and  mystify  the 
world  of  duty  and  award  were  all  his  sorrows  born.  But 
in  those  mysteries  moral  honesty  is  not  mocked.  Where 
iniquities  prevail,  the  soul  that  bows  towards  God  sees 
light.  Where  sin  abounds,  the  heart  that  yields  the  sacri 
fice  of  penitence  finds  peace.  In  the  face  of  hate  and 
strife  and  bloodshed,  to  banish  malice  and  to  cherish 
charity  is  to  enter  and  to  introduce  complete  tranquillity. 


226  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

Where  lives  grow  coarse  and  souls  are  base  and  purity  is 
all  denied,  the  soul  that  seeks  refinement  grows  refined  and 
consciously  approaches  God.  When  God  is  mocked  and 
scorners  multiply  and  hearts  grow  hard  in  pride,  the 
heart  that  meekly,  humbly  holds  its  confidence  in  the 
transcendent,  all-controlling  Deity  opens  in  that  lowly 
faith  deep  springs  of  never-failing  hope.  In  these  mys 
teries,  however  baffling  and  persistent,  these  efforts  towards 
relief  find  sure  and  great  reward. 

In  such  a  field  and  in  such  endeavors  it  was  Lincoln's 
sovereign  preference  to  measure  out  all  the  forces  of  his 
conscious  life.  Attent  towards  God,  benign  towards  men, 
upright  within,  and  prizing  life,  he  found,  not  defiance 
and  despair,  but  perennial  quickening  and  encouragement, 
whatever  problems  darkened  round  his  life.  For  him 
such  soul -filling  verities,  and  such  a  corresponding  faith 
held  far-transcending  primacy.  And  so  in  conscious, 
sovereign  and  everlasting  preference  for  the  truth  that 
shows  all  its  light  in  character,  and  for  the  faith  that  such 
clear  truth  forever  illuminates,  Lincoln  testified  his  con 
fidence  that  in  the  face  of  physics  ethics  holds  supreme 
pre-eminence. 

Of  all  this  searching  estimate  and  supreme  comparison 
of  these  two  divergent  realms  one's  mind  may  gravely 
doubt  whether  Lincoln's  mind  had  perfect  consciousness. 
Concerning  this  no  one  may  speak,  except  with  hesitance. 
But  any  one  whose  mind  has  entered  into  intimate  partner 
ship  with  all  the  wealth  of  Lincoln's  words  is  well  aware 
that  it  was  a  habit  of  his  mind  to  pursue  its  themes  to  their 
farthest  bourne.  In  penetration  and  in  pondering  not 
many  minds  were  ever  more  evenly  taxed.  His  mental 
persistence  and  deliberation  were  almost  preternatural. 
Discovering  this,  a  student  of  his  mental  ways  will  grow 
to  feel  that,  in  a  likelihood  almost  equivalent  to  full  cer- 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  227 

tainty,  Lincoln  was  wittingly  aware  of  all  the  meaning 
in  his  proclivity  to  rate  ethical  interests  uppermost. 

At  any  rate,  in  his  life  and  writings,  so  the  matter  stands. 
And  standing  thus  in  the  deeply  conscious  soul  of  Lincoln, 
the  matter  has  a  high  significance.  It  seems  to  testify 
with  a  prophet's  steady  voice  that  in  all  the  total  realm 
of  being,  the  realm  of  freedom,  of  consciousness,  arid  of 
character  is  the  first  and  sovereign  verity;  that  the  real 
is  fundamentally  ethical;  that  he  who  seeks  for  perfect 
satisfaction  must  bring  to  his  inquiry  the  glad  allegiance 
of  a  moral  freeman  and  a  moral  judge;  that  in  every  un 
dertaking  becoming  him  as  man  each  cardinal  moral 
excellence  must  grow  and  shine  increasingly;  that  every 
mental  acquisition  must  conduce  to  a  lowliness  that 
adores,  to  a  gentleness  that  loves,  to  a  purity  that  pledges 
immortality,  to  a  self-respect  that  is  the  mirror  and  original 
of  all  reality;  that  only  thus,  in  all  this  universe,  and  to 
all  eternity,  can  the  soul  of  man  gain  triumphs  that  can 
satisfy.  Only  so  will  truth  grow  fully  radiant,  and  mys 
tery  become  benign.  Only  so  can  finite  man  find  peace 
before  his  Maker,  and  face  serenely  all  that  wisest  unbe 
lief  finds  terrible.  This  is  truth.  Here  is  freedom. 
Such  is  faith.  Thus,  in  a  freeman's  faith  truth  stands 
complete. 

Such  is  Lincoln's  preference.  Like  another  Abraham, 
and  with  a  kindred  insight  and  determination,  he  won  all 
his  triumphs  and  renown  by  faith — a  free  and  conscious 
faith  in  God,  and  soul,  and  character. 

Here  are  designations,  at  once  so  plastic  and  so  precise, 
at  once  so  simple  and  so  profound,  as  to  signify  and  demon 
strate  how  souls  of  men  may  conquer  death ;  how  one  may 
be  a  perfect  devotee  to  another  person's  weal,  and  still 
preserve  his  own  integrity;  how  perfect  sanctity  may 
assume  a  full  companionship  with  sin,  whether  by  redemp- 


228  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

tion  or  rebuke,  and  still  remain  unflecked;  and  how  in 
man's  humility  may  be  enshrined  a  dignity  wherein  super 
nal  majesty  may  be  unveiled. 

In  some  such  vivid,  moral  terms,  mobile  to  grasp  and 
manifest  the  boundless  range  and  priceless  worth  within 
the  sovereign  moral  law;  as  also  to  declare  unerringly  the 
fateful  and  unbounded  issues  of  a  moral  choice,  may 
students  hope  to  trace  with  true  intelligence  the  real 
foundations  of  Lincoln's  all  but  unexampled  power  and 
fame. 


AN  EPILOGUE 
ADDRESSED   TO   THEOLOGIANS 

IN  designing  and  constructing  the  chapters  that  pre 
cede,  three  motives  have  been  actively  at  work.  There 
has  been  a  desire  to  set  within  the  realm  of  Civics  a  clear 
and  balanced  exposition  of  Lincoln's  moral  grandeur. 
There  has  been  a  desire  to  introduce  within  the  realm  of 
Ethics  a  fertile  method  of  discussion  and  research.  There 
has  been  a  desire  to  intimate  how  in  the  realm  of  pure 
Religion  the  finished  outline  of  a  transparent  character 
may  provide  a  pattern  for  a  true  description  of  the  prob 
lems  of  Theology. 

Of  these  three  motives  the  one  last  named  has  been 
preponderant.  Lincoln's  public  life  was  keyed  alike  to 
moral  honor  and  to  faith  in  God.  In  his  most  quickening 
aspirations  and  in  his  most  sacrificial  sorrows  his  sense  of 
personal  obligation  and  his  belief  in  an  over-ruling  Provi 
dence  held  fast  together  in  a  most  notable  unison.  Guile 
less,  luminous,  and  single-hearted  in  his  rectitude  and  in 
his  reverence,  he  affords  a  signal  illustration  of  the  way  in 
which  faith  and  conscience  may  vitally  co-operate  and 
even  coalesce.  He  presents  in  consequence  a  signal 
opportunity  for  exploring  the  inner  kinship  of  ethics  and 
religion.  His  personality  challenges  us  to  inquire  and 
see  how  honesty  and  godliness  consort;  how  in  a  complete 
and  balanced  character  the  categories  that  define  the 
basis  of  one's  moral  excellence  may  prove  themselves  to  be 
the  very  categories  that  inform  and  underlie  the  religious 
life. 

229 


230  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

Here  opens  an  engaging  investigation.  May  the  ulti 
mate  principles  of  a  true  ethical  theory  and  the  ultimate 
rationale  of  a  true  theology  be  found  in  living  deed  to 
coincide?  To  bring  this  question  into  open  view  is  the 
ulterior  aim  of  this  book,  and  more  particularly  of  this 
appended  Epilogue. 

In  the  open  petals  of  the  plainest  flower  soil  and  sun 
light,  earth  and  heaven,  meet  in  almost  mystic  union.  Be 
this  our  parable.  In  the  ample  compass  of  a  normal 
character,  such  as  Lincoln  shows,  there  is  in  very  deed  a 
mystic  union — a  vital  partnership  of  man  with  fellowman, 
and  of  men  with  God.  Be  this  deep  fellowship  described; 
for  here  commingle  indivisibly  the  essential  elements  in 
any  pure  and  full  display  in  human  life  of  morals  and 
religion. 

In  Lincoln's  public  life  there  was  undeniably  a  close 
companionship  with  God.  Earth-born  and  earth-envi 
roned  though  he  was,  he  had  supreme  affinity  with  heaven 
ly  realms.  His  face  was  seamed  with  suffering;  he  wore 
a  humble  mien;  his  habitual  posture  was  a  pattern  of  un 
studied  modesty.  But  through  those  sorrow-shadowed 
features  shone  a  radiant  exalted  hope,  as  he  walked  and 
toiled  in  reverend  covenant  with  the  sovereign  God  of 
Nations.  Besieged  by  day  and  night  with  difficulties  and 
distresses  such  as  rarely  burden  mortal  men,  in  his  nightly 
vigils  and  in  his  daily  labors  he  clung  to  Deity,  true  civilian 
and  true  man  of  God  at  once.  The  terms  of  this  high 
covenant  were  specific  and  distinct.  They  were  the  very 
terms  that  defined  the  conscious  qualities  of  his  upright, 
God-revering  character.  Be  those  qualities  described. 

In  the  first  place,  here  in  Lincoln's  open  character  it 
becomes  heavenly  clear  how  profoundly  intimate  and  at 
one  are  majesty  and  true  humility.  When  the  guise  of 
each  is  fully  genuine,  they  minutely  correspond.  In 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  231 

Lincoln's  lowliness  lay  the  very  image  of  the  majesty  of 
God.  To  that  high  majesty  his  lowliness  conformed. 
As  in  a  mountain  lake  may  be  enshrined  a  perfect  pattern 
of  the  heavenly  firmament,  so  was  Lincoln's  reverence  a 
conscious,  free  reflection  of  the  excellence  of  God.  His 
obedience  was  an  intelligent  recognition  and  re-enthrone 
ment  of  the  sovereign  law  of  God.  His  lowly  posture, 
when  in  supplicating  or  interceding  prayer,  was  induced 
by  the  bending  pity  of  a  compassionate  God.  That 
trusting  appeal  was  the  very  echo  of  God's  benign  con 
cern;  and  within  the  wrestlings  of  those  intense  entreaties 
the  divine  designs  gained  place  in  human  history.  Lincoln 
in  his  lowliness  was  Godlike.  His  humility  was  supremely 
dignified,  supremely  beautiful.  In  its  open  face,  as  in  the 
face  of  a  flower  opening  towards  the  sun,  was  resident  a 
heavenly  glory. 

In  the  second  place,  this  vital  unison  of  man  with  God 
stands  superbly  evident  in  the  stately  wedlock  of  Lin 
coln's  honesty  with  God's  righteousness.  In  Lincoln's 
soul  there  lived  a  faith  in  God's  integrity  which  no  dark 
storm  of  human  faithlessness,  and  no  delay  of  heaven's 
righteous  judgments  could  eclipse  or  wear  away.  This 
belief  was  in  him  an  active  energy.  It  grew  to  be  a  part 
nership  with  God's  uprightness — a  covenant  in  which  his 
own  soul's  eagerest  ambitions  and  resolves  became  up 
right.  In  his  inmost  soul  it  was  his  inmost  aspiration  to 
be  an  agent  for  enthroning  here  on  earth  the  equity  of 
God.  And  so,  in  fact,  as  a  mighty  nation's  chief  executive, 
he  did  become  the  executive  of  the  will  of  God.  In  his 
transparent  honesty  there  was  a  reflection  of  the  sincerity 
of  God.  In  his  firm  constancy  there  was  upheld  before 
this  people's  eye  an  index  finger  pointing  to  the  steadfast 
constancy  of  God.  In  his  pure  jealousy  for  the  utter 
sanctity  of  his  plighted  word  there  burned  a  fire  that  was 


232  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

kindled  in  the  eye  of  God.  In  all  his  even,  glowing  zeal 
for  righteousness  he  has  been  adjudged  by  all  his  fellow  - 
men  pre-eminently  a  man  of  God.  And  as  signal  devotee 
to  honesty  he  demonstrates  most  signally  that  God  and 
man  may  set  their  lives  in  unison. 

In  the  third  place  there  was  in  Lincoln's  patient  gentle 
ness  a  profound  resemblance  to  the  all-enduring  gentleness 
of  God.  His  mastery  of  malice  and  his  universal  charity 
in  the  face  of  multitudes  of  bitter  and  malignant  men 
attest  eternally  an  intimate  companionship  with  divine 
forbearing  grace.  His  sacrificial  intervention  on  behalf 
of  all  God's  little  ones  whom  human  heartlessness  had 
oppressed  is  world-arresting  evidence  and  demonstration 
that  in  his  kindly  heart  was  throned  the  Heavenly  Father's 
sympathy.  Unto  costly  fellowship  with  this  divine  for 
bearance  and  compassion  Lincoln  opened  unreservedly 
all  the  compass  of  his  life.  For  afflicted  and  afflicting  men 
he  felt  a  sorrow,  mixed  with  pity  and  rebuke,  both  born 
of  the  affection  fathers  feel,  both  proved  sincere  by  years 
of  sacrificial  anguish  unto  death.  And  this  he  did  with  a 
discerning  and  deliberate  mind.  It  was  thus  he  under 
stood  the  heart  and  ways  of  God;  and  thus  by  clear  design 
he  undertook  in  his  own  life  to  recommend  the  ways  of 
God  to  men.  In  verity  he  was  partaker  and  dispenser  of 
the  manifold  grace  of  God.  In  him  the  mighty  love  of 
God  found  living  medium.  Like  a  gentle  flower  drinking 
gratefully  the  warmth  and  beauty  flowing  towards  it  from 
the  sun,  his  soul  absorbed  the  gentle  ways  of  God  and 
itself  grew  kind  and  beautiful.  Here  again  it  may  be  seen 
how  intimate  may  be  the  life  of  man  in  God,  the  life  of 
God  in  man. 

In  the  fourth  place  there  was  in  Lincoln's  soul  an  all- 
prevailing  confidence  touching  future  destiny.  This  living 
confidence  was  the  outcome  of  his  close  partnership  with 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  233 

God.  His  faith  believed  that  God's  designs  held  fast 
eternally,  and  that  conviction  clouds  and  night  and  death 
were  impotent  to  overshadow  or  obscure.  The  rather,  as 
his  faith  and  hope  confided  in  that  unfailing  verity,  that 
faith  and  hope  became  themselves  unfailing.  His  sure 
belief  became  participant  in  God's  dependability.  Here 
is  the  deepest  secret  of  his  abiding  steadiness.  Hence  his 
calm  indifference  to  death. 

And  this  illumines  all  his  great  appeals  to  his  fellowmen 
with  the  light  of  a  prophetic  vision.  For  his  fellow-citi 
zens,  as  for  himself,  his  sovereign  aspiration  was  after 
permanence.  This  abiding  life,  whether  in  the  Nation  or 
in  himself,  he  had  the  mind  to  comprehend,  must  be  the 
very  life  of  God  within  the  soul.  In  civic  Godliness  alone 
could  there  be  civic  permanence.  In  the  Nation's  life  the 
life  of  God  must  be  incorporate.  Then  and  then  alone 
would  any  Nation  long  endure.  For  this  bright  civic  hope, 
for  this  alone  he  lived.  And  this  ever-springing  hopeful 
ness  and  confidence  is  the  shining  efflorescence  of  his  God 
liness.  He  clung  to  things  eternal  in  a  conscious  league 
with  God. 

Here  is  something  wonderful — something  replete  alike 
with  mystery  and  with  certitude — a  vital  unison  of  God 
and  man  in  undeniable  verity — a  unison  in  righteousness 
and  kindliness,  in  lowly  and  majestic  dignity,  in  immortal 
spirit  purity — a  unison  in  which  all  that  is  most  sacredly 
elemental  in  God  and  man  most  intimately  coalesce,  while 
yet  remaining  most  unmistakably  distinct — a  unison  in 
which  is  freely  and  consciously  engaged  all  that  personality, 
however  self -discern  ing  and  free,  can  ever  contribute  or 
contain — a  unison  as  historically  real  as  it  is  immeasurably 
profound — a  unison  in  which  space  and  time  provide  the 
theater,  while  yet  a  unison  in  which  time  and  space  dis 
solve.  Here  is  surely  ample  range  for  ample  exposition  of 


234  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

many  a  major  problem  in  theology,  and  all  within  the 
open  and  familiar  bounds  of  a  normal  moral  life. 

In  close  alliance  and  affinity  with  Lincoln's  vital  part 
nership  with  God,  and  of  almost  equal  pregnancy  for  the 
problems  of  religious  thought,  is  the  marvelous  intimacy  of 
his  inner  and  essential  fellowship  with  men.  This  feature 
of  his  public  life  is  becoming  more  commanding  and 
impressive  every  year.  To  a  degree  altogether  notable 
it  is  becoming  widely  understood  how  he  and  all  his 
fellowmen  were  wonderfully  allied.  It  is  becoming  seen 
by  all  of  us  that  the  qualities  essential  to  his  commanding 
excellence  are  qualities  deeply  typical  of  us  all.  His 
attitudes  of  deference  and  modesty,  his  promptings  towards 
things  permanent  and  durable,  his  equities,  his  kindnesses 
are  universal.  They  are  enthroned  within  us  all.  Every 
where,  in  everyone  they  ultimately  predominate. 

Wonderful  as  it  may  seem,  this  holds  as  true  of  enemies 
as  it  does  of  friends.  Hosts  of  people,  while  Lincoln  lived, 
held  him  their  deadliest  foe.  Through  all  those  bitter 
years,  while  they  defamed,  he  meekly,  mightily  held  his 
own,  subduing  malice,  disdaining  subtlety,  despising 
scorn  and  arrogance,  abhorring  sordid  greed;  pleading 
humbly,  but  as  a  prince  instead,  for  righteousness  and 
charity  and  man's  immortal  destiny.  And  now  all  men 
detect  that  however  deep  and  overmastering  those  aver 
sions  and  animosities  may  have  been,  there  was  in  his 
enemies  and  himself  a  moral  kinship  and  agreement  far 
more  powerful  and  profound.  His  humble,  hopeful  plea 
that  every  man  be  fair  and  pitiful  is  winning  everywhere 
today  glad  witness  to  its  eternal  and  imperial  validity. 

And  the  wonder  of  this  deep  partnership  with  men  but 
deepens,  when  we  consider  that  the  form  of  this  all-appeal 
ing,  all-prevailing  partnership  was  sacrificial.  This  leads 
straight  into  the  innermost  interior  of  the  problem  of 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS          235 

vicarious  suffering — one  mortal,  suffering  in  another's 
place  and  for  another's  sake.  Never  in  all  that  era  of  civic 
anguish  in  the  civil  war  did  any  human  mortal  suffer 
keener  or  more  continual  sorrow  than  did  he  who  of  all 
the  Nation's  multitudes  stood  most  untainted  and  inno 
cent  of  the  iniquity  which  that  stern  civic  judgment  was 
to  purge  away.  Guiltless  utterly  of  any  part  in  slavery 
for  his  own  profit  or  by  his  own  consent,  he  partook  with 
all  the  guilty  ones  of  all  the  sorrows  of  its  expurgation. 

And  yet  more  wonderful  is  the  sequent  fact  that  in 
precisely  this  voluntary  and  conscious  unison  of  innocence 
and  suffering  in  his  outstanding  life  stood  and  moved  the 
pillar  of  fire  and  the  pillar  of  cloud  that  led  this  Nation 
through  those  sorrows  by  night  and  day. 

Here  again  is  something  wonderful — something  again 
replete  with  mystery  and  with  certitude.  And  here  again 
do  mystery  and  certitude  stand  truly  unified  and  harmon 
ized.  Truly  they  are  unified.  But  in  that  unison  their 
identity  stands  clarified.  There  where  Lincoln's  manhood 
shows  most  humane  and  universal,  a  Nation's  common 
symbol,  outlining  nothing  less  than  a  puissant  Nation's 
boundless  majesty,  there  stands  defined,  as  with  engraver's 
finished  art,  his  separate,  ever  sacred,  individual  nobility. 
Even  there  where  his  moral  being  merges  most  completely 
into  deepest  sympathy  with  the  afflictions  that  descend 
on  sin,  there  his  own  integrity  and  personal  jealousy  for 
righteousness  are  most  outstanding  and  distinct.  But  be 
it  said  again,  in  Lincoln  do  that  broad  humaneness  and 
that  erect  nobility,  that  sympathy  and  that  jealousy  sub 
sist  in  unison.  In  strict  verity  he  is  our  Nation's  surro 
gate.  Surely  here  again  is  ample  range  for  ample  exposi 
tion  of  many  a  major  problem  of  theology,  and  all  still 
held  within  the  open  and  familiar  bounds  of  a  normal 
moral  life. 


£36  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

So  Lincoln  stood  in  unison  with  God  and  fellowman. 
Ideally  complete  in  his  own  identity,  he  was  ideally  allied 
with  other  lives  through  all  the  personal  realm.  And  be 
it  well  and  truly  seen  that  the  elements  of  this  affiance 
with  his  God,  and  the  elements  of  his  firm  league  with 
brothermen  were  identically  the  same.  In  each  and 
either  realm  the  binding  bonds  were  fealty  to  charity,  to 
equity,  to  humility,  to  purity.  These  four  qualities  ex 
plain  and  guarantee  completely  his  allegiance.  These 
and  these  alone  were  the  constituent  elements  of  all  his 
brotherhood  and  of  all  his  reverence.  And  it  is  within 
the  nature  of  these  four  vital  qualities,  at  once  so  Godlike 
and  so  human,  and  within  their  ever-living  interplay  that 
one  must  look  to  find  whatever  Lincoln's  character  can 
contribute  to  the  problems  of  theology. 

What  averments  tremble  here!  Our  mighty  human 
race  does  truly  live  in  unison.  Within  that  peopled  uni 
son  the  life  of  one  may  have  far-ranging  partnership. 
That  partnership  is  closely  definable  in  terms  of  character. 
In  Lincoln's  life  as  private  soul,  and  as  vicar  of  us  all  alike, 
his  constancy  and  kindliness,  his  purity  and  lowliness 
embrace  and  body  forth  his  total  being,  with  all  he  bore 
and  wrought.  Herein  unfolded  all  his  beauty  and  all  his 
worth,  whether  as  a  single  citizen  or  as  a  Nation's  repre 
sentative. 

And  our  humble  human  life  does  also  truly  share  the 
life  in  God.  Within  that  heavenly  unison  the  lowliest 
soul  may  have  exalted  fellowship.  And  so  in  Lincoln's 
loyalty  and  tenderness,  his  lowliness  and  thirst  for  im 
mortality,  as  man  of  God,  unfolds  the  heavenly  beauty  of 
God's  eternal  purity  and  majesty,  God's  benignity  and 
faithfulness. 

So  do  lives  of  free  and  conscious  beings  most  truly  flour 
ish  and  so  do  they  most  truly  blend.  Our  fellowship  with 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  237 

Lincoln,  and  Lincoln's  fellowship  with  us;  God's  fellowship 
with  Lincoln  and  Lincoln's  fellowship  with  God;  this 
mystic  unrestricted  partnership  of  noble  souls;  unfolding 
and  unrolling  sovereign  harmonies,  even  when  they  antag 
onize;  in  vengeance  or  compassion  fulfilling  all  their  mis 
sion  and  dominion  through  the  earth — these  are  indeed 
our  sovereign  realities.  In  scanning  these  we  may  indeed 
discern  deep  ways  of  God  and  men. 

Mighty  highways  open  here — highways  that  enter 
every  major  province  of  theology.  Be  these  avenues 
observed. 

Whence  came  the  blight  of  slavery?  How  in  human 
soil  could  such  inhumanity  germinate?  What  is  the 
virus  of  its  contagion?  What  makes  its  guilt  so  terrible? 

Must  inhumanity  be  avenged?  May  avengers  still  be 
merciful?  May  hardened  men  become  regenerate?  May 
guilt  and  innocence  be  reconciled? 

\Vhy  such  anguish  on  the  innocent?  WThy  should  little 
ones  be  crushed?  Why  such  hosts  of  patient  ones  meekly 
bearing  wrong  and  shame?  Why  do  offenses  need  to  come? 
How  does  patience  work  on  sin?  How  does  sorrow  work 
on  guilt? 

What  is  human  brotherhood?  May  fellowmen  be  sur 
rogates?  May  men's  honor  interchange? 

Wherein  stands  human  character?  What  makes  a  man 
responsible?  How  sovereign  is  man's  liberty?  How 
supreme  is  man's  intelligence?  Are  moral  beings  subject 
to  decay? 

May  finite  man  come  near  to  God?  Does  God  come 
near  to  finite  man?  May  plans  of  men  and  God's  designs 
combine?  May  God  be  seen  in  human  life?  May  human 
hearts  partake  of  God?  Are  love  and  truth  and  liberty, 
the  crown  of  human  dignity,  enthroned  in  God  ideally? 

Is  Christ  indeed  the  Lord  of  men?     Is  he  our  life?     Are 


238  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

his  teachings  true?     Is  his  love  divine?     Can  he  indeed 
redeem? 

Upon  such  queryings  as  these,  all  running  deeply  into 
mystery,  each  one  fast  rooted  in  reality,  and  each  one 
voicing  in  each  human  soul  an  urgent  quest,  those  sterling 
elements  of  Lincoln's  character,  his  lowliness,  his  living 
hope,  his  pity,  and  his  faithfulness  shed  grateful  light. 

Be  these  four  qualities  unveiled  before  the  face  of  sin, 
that  sin  may  be  defined. 

When  in  the  presence  of  some  noble  majesty  or  of  some 
courtly  modesty  a  free  and  conscious  soul  is  arrogant  or 
insolent;  when  a  being  bom  for  endless  life  in  freedom, 
light  and  purity,  exchanges  God  and  immortality  for  idol 
forms  and  baseness  and  decay;  when  recipients  of  God's 
unnumbered  benefits,  and  participants  in  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  a  teeming  world  of  brothermen  remain  ungrate 
ful  and  unpitiful;  when  beings  destined  to  be  sons  of  light 
prefer  hypocrisy  and  unbelief;  then,  irreverent,  corrupt, 
ungracious,  and  untrue,  sin  shows  all  its  horridness  and 
iniquity. 

And  when  in  the  presence  of  pure  grace  and  truth  all 
such  perverseness  stands  revealed;  then  the  beauty  of  a 
quiet  modesty,  as  it  respects  all  worthy  majesty,  will  make 
supremely  plain  the  ugliness  of  every  form  of  insolence; 
then  the  life  that  opens  towards  perpetual  dawn  will  most 
mightily  and  forevermore  reproach  the  life  that  feasts 
upon  corroding  food,  fattening  and  hardening  towards 
decay;  then  outpouring,  patient  love  will  visit  on  ingrati 
tude  and  hate  their  most  unbearable  rebuke;  and  then 
the  radiant  light  of  simple  truth  and  pure  sincerity  will 
set  all  falsity  and  unbelief  in  uttermost  disgrace.  In  such 
an  awful  penalty,  supreme  and  unavoidable,  will  sin  incur 
its  doom. 

But  in  the  very  penalty  it  stands  proclaimed  how  sinful 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  239 

souls  may  be  transformed,  and  hostile  hearts  be  recon 
ciled. 

When  pride,  subdued  by  majesty,  rejoices  in  humility; 
when  grossness,  shamed  by  purity,  welcomes  purging  fires ; 
when  malice,  melted  by  forbearance,  partakes  the  sacrifice 
and  becomes  itself  compassionate;  when  falsity,  unveiled 
by  verity,  submits  to  its  rebuke  and  welcomes  truth  with 
deep  docility  and  faith;  then  within  the  sinner's  penitence 
is  every  penalty  absolved,  and  between  embittered  souls 
comes  perfect  reconciliation. 

Be  these  four  qualities  addressed  to  that  supreme  trans 
action  named  atonement. 

When,  in  perfect  loyalty  and  in  perfect  lowliness,  with  a 
perfect  charity  and  with  an  utter  trust  in  immortality, 
one  like  a  Son  of  Man  consents  to  bear  the  dark  affront  of 
insolence  and  perfidy  from  base  and  deadly  men,  enduring 
meekly  wrhat  his  soul  abhors,  then  to  all  the  sons  of  men 
is  published  equally,  and  with  supreme  assurance,  that 
sins  of  men  must  be  indeed  avenged,  and  that  sinful  men 
may  be  indeed  redeemed. 

In  that  transaction  malice  faces  patience,  and  patience 
faces  malice  for  a  final  strife.  There  candor  bears  the  ly 
ing  taunt  of  acting  in  disguise.  Humility  endures  the 
shameful  charge  of  shameless  arrogance.  Compassion 
bows  as  though  a  thief  to  all  the  brutal  rudeness  of  a  mob. 
The  soul  of  immortal  purity  is  bartered  for  by  traders 
greedy  after  silver  coins,  and  driving  through  their  trade 
with  lamps  and  clubs. 

But  in  the  measure  and  in  the  manner  of  that  transcend 
ent  patience  malice  is  preparing  for  itself  the  manner  and 
the  measure  of  its  own  just  doom.  And  in  the  measure 
and  the  manner  of  that  same  transcendent  patience  con 
trition  may  discern  the  manner  and  the  measure  of  its 
release.  In  that  mighty  mingling  of  aversion  and  endur- 


240  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

ance  sin  must  behold  alike  its  omnipotent  redemption  and 
its  omnipotent  rebuke.  Thus  love,  in  perfect  sympathy, 
and  truth,  in  perfect  equity  set  forth  in  heavenly  purity 
the  sovereign  majesty  of  an  atonement  for  the  world. 

Be  these  four  radiant  qualities  applied  to  him  we  call 
alike  the  son  of  Mary  and  the  Son  of  God.  In  him,  the 
Son  of  God,  shines  such  a  plenitude  of  grace  and  truth  as 
becomes  the  glory  of  the  very  God,  revealed  in  such  im 
mortal  purity  as  proves  him  heir  and  very  Lord  of  all 
eternity,  and  wearing  such  a  dignity  as  belongs  at  once  to 
heaven's  majesty  and  our  most  genuine  humility;  while 
deep  within  his  open  life  as  son  of  Mary  there  shines  such 
a  full  and  genial  truth  and  grace  as  proves  his  true  human 
ity,  so  free  from  mortal  taint  through  all  our  transient 
scenes  as  proves  his  spirit's  immortality,  and  manifesting 
everywhere  to  all  the  sons  of  man  their  own  ideal  lowliness. 
These  are  all  his  beauty.  In  him  they  fully  blend.  They 
blend  in  him  indeed.  But  they  do  not  dissolve.  And  so 
may  we  with  souls  akin  to  him  whom  Mary  bore  behold 
in  him  the  proper  image  of  our  complete  humanity;  and 
still  with  eyes  and  vision  all  unchanged,  behold  within 
those  same  fair  traits  the  very  image  and  the  unbounded 
fulness  of  the  glory  of  the  infinite  God. 

Be  these  same  radiant  qualities  our  proper  medium  for 
beholding  Deity.  Conceive  of  One  in  whose  being  the 
only  light  and  glory  reside  in  the  pure  majesty  of  a  perfect 
grace  and  truth.  Conceive  how  these  free  living  qualities 
permit  a  unison  in  fellowship,  a  fellowship  in  unison. 
Conceive  how  such  a  unison  permits  to  each  participant 
complete  equality  and  a  full  infinity.  Conceive  thus  how 
perfect  constancy  and  perfect  kindliness,  revealed  in 
perfect  purity,  and  clad  in  perfect  majesty  may  manifest 
eternally  in  mystic  unison  the  blessedness  of  a  perfect 
personality.  Conceive  how  such  a  partnership  in  unison, 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  241 

and  unison  in  partnership  will  be  evermore  containing 
and  enjoying  within  itself  an  evermore  unsullied  Spirit 
life,  engendering  and  completing  all  the  finite  forms  of 
being  of  the  created  universe;  an  evermore  unfolding  Love 
that  is  the  one  original  of  every  fatherhood  in  heaven  and 
earth ;  and  an  evermore  Responding  Love  that  is  the  primal 
inspiration  of  the  admiring  and  adoring  thankfulness  of 
every  child  of  God;  while  evermore  displaying  in  a  loyal 
self-respect  the  eternal  archetype  and  origin  of  every 
verity  and  every  equity  enthroned  in  any  earnest  upright 
mind.  And  so  conceive  in  terms  as  vivid  as  our  own 
intelligence  and  liberty  how  true  transcendent  Deity  may 
wield  no  other  energy  and  know  no  other  blessedness  than 
unfolds  forever  in  a  free  and  conscious  unison  and  partner 
ship  in  pure  transcendent  love  and  truth. 

Transcendent  thoughts  and  ventures  these.  But  abound 
ing  other  thoughts  and  ventures  no  less  transcendent 
wait  and  urge  for  utterance.  They  all  assume  no  less, 
and  nothing  more,  than  that  in  the  living  vision  of  a  living 
personality  hides  and  shines  the  harmony  that  may  unite 
the  mysteries  and  the  certainties  of  this  universe.  Let 
Truth,  as  personal  self-respect;  and  Love,  as  self -devoting 
life;  and  Purity,  that  fears  no  death;  and  Dignity,  that 
crowns  all  worth — let  these  be  clearly  seen,  each  one 
apart;  and  clearly  seen  again  wrhen  fully  unified — and 
human  thought  holds  categories  in  hand  whereby  the 
problems  of  our  mental  and  ethical  and  religious  life  may 
be  resolved. 

Of  all  of  this  what  goes  before  is  but  a  brief  and  bare 
suggestive  hint.  Its  development  and  vindication  call 
for  the  completed  exposition  of  such  a  balanced  round  of 
thought  as  may  be  found  in  a  prophet  like  Isaiah,  an 
apostle  like  Paul,  or  an  evangelist  like  John. 


LINCOLN'S  SECOND  INAUGURAL 

Fellow-Countrymen : 

At  this  second  appearing  to  take  the  oath  of  the  presi 
dential  office,  there  is  less  occasion  for  an  extended  address 
than  there  was  at  the  first.  Then  a  statement,  somewhat 
in  detail,  of  a  course  to  be  pursued,  seemed  fitting  and 
proper.  Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which 
public  declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth  on 
every  point  and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which  still 
absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the  energies  of  the 
Nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be  presented.  The  progress 
of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly  depends,  is  as  well 
known  to  the  public  as  to  myself;  and  it  is,  I  trust,  reason 
ably  satisfactory.  With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no 
prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years  ago, 
all  thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impending 
civil  war.  All  dreaded  it — all  sought  to  avert  it.  While 
the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from  this  place, 
devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Uniozi  without  war, 
insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seeking  to  destroy  it 
without  war — seeking  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  divide 
effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  parties  deprecated  war; 
but  one  of  them  would  make  war  rather  than  let  the  Na 
tion  survive;  and  the  other  would  accept  war  rather  than 
let  it  perish.  And  the  war  came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored  slaves, 
not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but  localized 
in  the  southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  constituted  a 

242 


LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS  243 

peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew  that  this  interest 
was,  somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war.  To  strengthen,  per 
petuate,  and  extend  this  interest  was  the  object  for  which 
the  insurgents  would  rend  the  Union,  even  by  war;  while 
the  Government  claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than  to  re 
strict  the  territorial  enlargement  of  it.  Neither  party 
expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which 
it  has  already  attained.  Neither  anticipated  that  the 
cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease  with,  or  even  before,  the 
conflict  itself  should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier 
triumph,  and  a  result  less  fundamental  and  astounding. 
Both  read  the  same  Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God;  and 
each  invokes  His  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem 
strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's 
assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other 
men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged. 
The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered — that  of  neither 
has  been  answered  fully. 

The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  "Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offenses !  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offenses 
come;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh. " 
If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of  those 
offenses  which,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  must  needs  come, 
but  which,  having  continued  through  His  appointed  time, 
He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He  gives  to  both  North 
and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by 
whom  the  offense  came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any 
departure  from  those  divine  attributes  which  the  believers 
in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to  Him?  Fondly  do  we 
hope — fervently  do  we  pray — that  this  mighty  scourge  of 
war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it 
continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk, 
and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be 


244  LINCOLN'S  CARDINAL  TRAITS 

paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three 
thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "The  judg 
ments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let 
us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in;  to  bind  up  the 
Nation's  wounds;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne 
the  battle,  and  for  his  widow,  and  his  orphan — to  do  all 
which  may  achieve  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  our 
selves,  and  with  all  Nations. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 
LOAN  DEPT. 

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